Toltec Life Objectives: Awareness of Death

Birth is our process in, Death is our process out – two real miracles we all enjoy, depending on how you look at it.

Toltecs are taught, not only the awareness of our inevitable death, but communication and interchange with Death, as a person and as a place. In our reality, this is anything but morbid.

Death reminds us we are not immortal, though we have a fatal tendency to live and act that way, as if there are no consequences to what we do. Rather a toltec, aware of her impending death, takes nothing for granted.

The advice of death forms one of the five Toltec Life Objectives, as we’ve come to name these principles. In other words, Death gives us an edge, along with the gift of the other principles, of course: Emancipation, Equilibrium and Experience, (and next) Ancestors.

Death’s advice starts with simply understanding the sizable significance of one’s death, and for most, that’s the needed edge to continue strong. Some warriors, though, go deeper: communicating with Death, possibly visiting the land of the Dead, doing direct work with ancestors, and learning how to gain a boost from the knowledge. Naturally we’re concerned with how to die well, and what rights we might have in the thereafter.  

Death marks our expiration date. Doesn’t it make sense to understand it, perhaps even gain an edge from it?

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