Anything touched by death turns into power. Warriors understand this, and therefore maintain a most intimate relationship with their death - a relationship which in time becomes a dance.

Only after the warrior has brought about the ninety degree shift can he in all honesty accept the title of Toltec. Thus the career of true-blooded Toltecs is short by any standard, and yet it is time enough in which to rejoice in their full power. In having chosen to walk the path of freedom warriors know that they cannot defeat old age, but only fight it off impeccably until death taps them.

The ninety degree shift does not cancel the effects of old age upon the physical body, but it does enable warriors to retain control of all their faculties, their knowledge, sobriety, and power, right up to and even beyond the moment of physical death. This is every warrior's reward for having been willing to fight impeccably right up until the final breath.

In the presence of death everything becomes power, and ordinary acts become imbued with magic.

A warrior never cedes his personal power to anything, not even to his death.

No man can survive the path of knowledge if he is not prepared to embrace death. Death is a warrior’s best advisor.

The warrior comes to knowledge fully prepared to die, and thus circumvents all possible pitfalls. Being prepared for the worst, the warrior cannot be surprised, because he is not expecting to live. Facing death, the warrior cuts out all unnecessary acts; therefore his fate unfolds smoothly.

Transformation is the process of death in which the warrior actively engages once he or she embarks upon the warrior's path. It starts with transmutation and ends in transfiguration.

Only those who come to the warrior's path prepared to die can possibly hope to succeed.