Nagualism was a socially accepted practice for thousands of years, comparable to our religion or science. In time, its postulates grew in abstraction and synthesis, becoming a kind of philosophical proposition, the practitioners of which took the name Toltecs. The Toltecs were not what we ordinarily think of as ‘sorcerers’, that is, individuals who use supernatural forces to damage others, but rather extremely disciplined men and women who were interested in complex aspects of consciousness. ~ Carlos Castaneda, Encounters with the Nagual

The books written by Carlos Castaneda encompass the teachings of the ancient Toltec people. There is not much to be found about the Toltec but the most consistent attribute is that they were known as women and men of knowledge; scientists, artists, teachers, spiritualists and people from various races and all walks of life, who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones. The Toltec people were Seers just like the other mystics who have been dedicated to bringing wisdom, truth, and simplicity to those who were seeking to distance themselves from the dominant paradigmatic story.

They were, as Carlos Castaneda often wrote, masters of awareness who constantly challenged themselves to evolve beyond the realm of ordinary human awareness to attain personal freedom. They focused on pure energy as being the driving force behind all things and disciplined themselves to release everything extraneous in order to break free of the mold of man which is an unconscious act of living through the conditioning and repetitive patterns of humanity. I call it the man-made matrix.

Because of their commitment to personal freedom, the Toltec became aware that the perception of consensual reality was a limiting and restrictive modality that distracted one from the truth of Source energy. They knew that the mastery of a number of different practices, including recapitulation, aligning with intent and accessing the dream world would result in the ability to hone their levels of awareness and perception. Always alert and committed to conscious evolution they consistently opened doorways to new worlds.