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The Toltec

The Four Agreements opens with Ruiz’s explanation of who the Toltec people were. He describes them as a group of artists and scientists who came together at Teotihuacan, near modern-day Mexico City, to form a society of spiritual masters (naguals) and students who would explore and preserve spiritual knowledge and practices that had come to them from “the ancient ones.” Over time, they maintained this spiritual doctrine in secret, especially during European colonialism, passing it down through generations, waiting for a time when they could once again share it with the world. Ruiz, stating that he is himself a nagual, announces that he has now received spiritual guidance to reveal these secrets. However, he emphasizes that the Toltec ways are not a religion, but a way of life that embraces a spiritual aspect.

Introduction

In the Introduction, “The Smokey Mirror,” Ruiz tells a story of a medicine man dissatisfied with what he was learning before having a dream that revealed the truth to him. In the dream, the man learned that everything is made of light or what is in between light, and that light is the force behind life. In this way, all of creation is a manifestation of God, and all beings are inherently made of pure light. However, people are unable to perceive pure light, instead seeing its reflection through “mirrors” which can be made of anything and everything in the universe, including people themselves. Because of human interpretation, these reflections have a sort of smoke or fog between them, preventing people from seeing their true selves and creating a world of illusion called the “Dream.” The medicine man names himself Smokey Mirror so that he will never forget that he and all his fellow humans are mirrors with smoke clouding the view between them.

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