The Toltec Art of Life and Death

Internationally bestselling author of The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz gives us a mystical tour of his life and calling as a “Nagual” in this gripping spiritual and autobiographical teaching novel.


Internationally bestselling author Don Miguel Ruiz became a trusted and well-known teacher of spiritual wisdom through his popular works such as The Four Agreements, Mastery of Love, and The Voice of Knowledge. Now he is ready to take his students on a new journey, inviting us to confront and learn a deeper level of spiritual teaching and wisdom than he has attempted before.


Using the occasion of his heart attack in 2002 and subsequent coma where it was not clear he would live, Ruiz and his cowriter Barbara Emrys have created an enchanting and mystical tale of the internal spiritual struggle Ruiz undergoes as his body lies unconscious. He must choose whether or not to come back to life. Re-experiencing the people, ideas, and encounters that have shaped him through his childhood and career, we encounter the challenges of “the way of the Nagual,”—a person who is called to teach and embody the deepest spiritual truths of the universe.


In the tradition of Carlos Castaneda and other shamans who have come before him, Ruiz invites us to grapple with truths that are beyond what can be put into words but nonetheless promise to transform everything we know.