The Toltec were an ancient civilization who lived in southern Mexico at Teotihuacan (which means “where man becomes God”), the ancient city of pyramids.

The Toltec lived and taught a spiritual way of life which has been preserved and handed down through generations. At the heart of this way of life and teaching were the so-called “Five Agreements”.

Over the next few articles I will be discussing these Agreements and how they may be useful to us today.

The First Agreement

“Be impeccable with your word”

This Agreement reflects the power of the word. The Bible states that “In the beginning God created the word” and it was through the word and its primal sound that the Universe was created.

The word is a messenger of intent and comprises all the symbols we have created and the meanings we have attributed to them. This is how we communicate with each other. If we didn’t have symbols for say a “tree” for example how would we know when someone else was talking about a tree? How also could we think unless we had a language made up of word symbols with agreed meanings that we can use to create our thoughts?

We create our own reality by using words. It is through words that we are able to define what we observe. However, there is an inherent problem here as we have made definitions to go with words that reflect our own personal virtual realities. From individual to individual and from culture to culture our meanings can be quite different.

We can use words carelessly with disregard to their impact or with constructive intention. If we can develop a practice of becoming and remaining aware of the words, conversations and thoughts that originate from our minds we can observe the real truth that is obscured by the false interpretations and meanings we have learned about ourselves and life in general.

Society has historically and continues through the use of the word sought to control its citizens. Whoever has the power to influence the meaning of word symbols has the power to control those individuals who remain asleep and caught up in Society’s dream.

Lets consider for example the word “beauty”. There are many examples in the media today of what society interprets this word to mean. It has nothing to do with who you are authentically but all to do with superficial appearances.

Unless you are awake to the power of this word you are likely to get caught up in the belief that to be acceptable and approved of by Society you need to look and dress a certain way and of course vested interests develop based around these externals which can be manipulated to make a few people wealthy.

We are subtley brainwashed by our Society to believe certain things and to obey rules that are set to reinforce those beliefs. What we learn as truth is not necessarily the real TRUTH it is only a distorted version of it.

The real TRUTH is found within – that we are all divine creators of our own universes. If your universe is not to your liking then you have the power to change it. Are you creating a virtual heaven or a virtual hell?

A cautionary note: be careful of what you ask for as you may just get it!