Nagual is a hispanized version of NAHUAL: the basic sense in compound words is "audible, intelligible, clear". By extension this may also be used to refer to things "within earshot", "near by" or "incantation (with words/sounds)".

The following words are derived from this word element:
NAHUAL-LI (plural: NAHUALTIN) means: sorcerer/one who uses spells and incantations. The Spaniards adopted the word as NAGUAL in Mexican Spanish to refer to Indian sorcerers in general.

NAHUALIZTLI - witchcraft

NAHUALLOTL - sorcery/necromancy

NAHUALHUIA - to cast a spell on someone

The name of the language, NAHUATL, means "something that sounds agreeable", in contrast to all other languages that were percived by the Nahuas as primitive stuttering.

In modern Nahuatl, the original meanings of many words have changed and been modified, sometimes drastically. Sometimes, in some contemporary communities, "Nahualli" refer to "bad spirits" (probably because the Spanish missionaries tried to convince the Nahuas that their old deities were just "sorcerers" in contrast to the christian deities (the saints) that were transformed into "good spirits").

TONA
TONA means simply "to be warm"

The word for "sun" is TONATIUH

TONAL-LI means "the warmth of the sun" and can also be used to refer to "summer"

Tonalli is also a day in the Aztec TONALPOHUALLI calendar. Already at the naming ceremony shortly after a child's birth, pronounced a priest, skilled in the interpretation of day signs, the destiny of the new born individual. It could of course not be avoided that some children were born on less fortunate days. But, to some extent, it was possible to alter one's fate, and the priest knew some techniques that could prevent the worst. For example a child, whose tonalli was rather unlucky, could be helped if the naming ceremony was held on an other day, than normally prescribed. But nobody could escape his destiny completely. If the naming ceremony was held on a day with less fortunate signs, all foretold misfortune would in any case come through.

Tonali is thus perhaps synonymous with "individual destiny" and formed a central part in the construction of the self in Nahua thought. A person's tonalli was responsible for each persons vital powers, physical growth, rationality, abilities etc. This tonalli constituted the Nahua self together with a number of other elements.

Nothing indicates that only men posessed a tonalli in the pre-conquest society. All living things, also animals, plants etc, posessed a tonalli. Tonalli might perhaps be translated with "life force". If men are supposed to have "tonalli" and women are supposed to have "nahualli" that could be interpreted in this way: "Men are blessed with "life-energy" and women are "posessed by bad spirits" which hardly corresponds with Nahua ideas... I believe that the Toltec group you refer to in South Africa has borrowed only the Nahua vocabulary and redfined and reinterpreted the concepts according to their own traditions. During the last 500 years, much has been written on the Nahuas, even in South Africa, a lot of literature about Measoamerican cultures that could inspire such thoughts is easily accesible.

ATLANTEANS IN TULA
Tula is the home city of the Totecs in the time of Quetzalcotl-- about 900 AD. The Spaniards called certain tall statues in Tula "Atlanteans" because that word simply meant a statue of a male figure that functions as a pillar or column and carries a roof of some kind. A statue of a female figure that is used in the same way is called "Karyatide". Atlant can also be used to designate any gigant (cf. the gigant ATLAS in greak mythology). We do not know anything about how the Toltecs themselves designated these statues.

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