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My Good Friend the Rattlesnake: Stories of Loss, Truth, and Transformation

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Every life is a new journey.

Navigate your personal path with spiritual advisor and bestselling author don Jose Ruiz. This collection of short stories teaches how to find your way and discover yourself in the process.

From rattlesnakes and rebellion to swamis and shamans, these stories will shape how you see the world around you and your own road through it.

101 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2014

29 people are currently reading
125 people want to read

About the author

Jose Ruiz

100 books60 followers
Don Jose Ruiz, son of Miguel Ruiz and brother of Miguel Ruiz Jr, was born in Mexico but moved to the USA when he was 21.

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5 stars
51 (39%)
4 stars
41 (31%)
3 stars
30 (23%)
2 stars
5 (3%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Melanie.
752 reviews23 followers
January 14, 2015
I read The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz, Don Jose's father, many years ago, and enjoyed it, so I was interested to read a book written by his son. This book has short stories and poems that deal with such topics as forgiveness, awareness, peace, action, detachment, judgment, respect, love, gratitude, honesty, discipline, transformation and much more!!

Mr. Ruiz is open in his past issues with drugs and alcohol and living on the wild side for a time. He tells stories that help explain what caused him to change and the lessons he's learned throughout his life. My favorite story was "The Four Keys of Transformation." He shares the four keys and tells a story that illustrates how applying them could work in a real life situation. I also liked "Welcoming Home the Love of My Life" which is a story where he was temporarily blind for a week. He needed to rely on his other senses to learn what was going on around him and felt love, truth and understanding in a way he never had before.

I don't agree with all the conclusions that Mr. Ruiz came to but I enjoyed reading his perspective on various topics. This is a thought provoking and interesting read!

I received a copy of this to review. My opinion is 100% my own.

Mel's Shelves
Profile Image for Laura.
148 reviews1 follower
December 4, 2017
Good for reflective thinking. I saw him speak, and bought the book.

Favorite line - "I...remind myself that I am still alive and that I have each day to make my life one that I can be proud of. Each day is an opportunity to explore my truth and become the person I would truly love to spend the rest of my life with "
Profile Image for Diana Lorena SRP.
655 reviews68 followers
December 17, 2018
Los libros son mi hogar, porque cuando encuentras dentro de las historias de otros, tus propias palabras, tus propios pensamientos y tus propias creencias, se siente como volver a casa.

Este libro me lo prestó una amiga muy querida esta semana, e inicialmente no comprendí por qué. Es un libro muy de su estilo y tradición espiritual, que no son precisamente los mismos míos.

Pero las enseñanzas llegan de cualquier sitio y en este lectura encontré, sorprendida, muchos aspectos de mi ser, que me hicieron sonreír mucho mientras los leía, y que me motivan a seguir en el camino en el que estoy.

Este libro narra historias de la vida del autor, mezcladas con componentes de la tradición tolteca, y otras como la hindú.
Profile Image for Laura Witt.
23 reviews
January 30, 2022
I liked it, but the many spelling errors in the kindle edition made my head spin. Common errors, like mistaking "loose" for "lose" and using "lead" as a past tense instead of "led" made me feel like I was reading something really deep and wonderful that had been written by a middle schooler. I loved The 5th Agreement, so I was hoping for better, but there are a few choice nuggets in there as well. A couple of the poems were lovely.
Profile Image for Sylvette Laguerre.
3 reviews
January 21, 2024
Excelente libro para pensar y reflexionar. Del hijo del autor de los 4 acuerdos te recuerda que es lo importante de la vida y como poco a poco olvidamos que en lo simple, radica la belleza de la vida. Me encanto entender la analogía de la serpiente.
Un libro fácil de leer.
Profile Image for Siham Akachoud.
4 reviews7 followers
Read
July 9, 2021
One of my favourite books, I adore how the writer mixed poetry and novel.
All I can say is this book is a masterpiece,
I recommend it dearly.
1 review
September 14, 2021
Powerful

Powerful. There are so many truths of life in this book and it comes from references of the author's actual life. Will reread at some point again.
Profile Image for Ya Ling.
199 reviews1 follower
August 7, 2025
Really personal and honest. I enjoyed the stories and there are many rituals that can help integrate the different parts of ourselves.

Sweet and short.
Profile Image for Hawraki.
627 reviews89 followers
August 29, 2025
أجد صعوبة في تقييم الكتب التي يتحدث فيها الأشخاص عن أنفسهم، لكني استمتعت حتما بالاستماع إلى هذا الكتاب، خاصة الجزء الأول منه.
94 reviews5 followers
November 2, 2016
Easy to read book. Seems like instead of learning his lessons, he kept making the same mistakes over and over and not learning from them. good book, we all have demons and snakes to overcome and karma to burn. Either way, a nice read of a person who made many mistakes and keeps doing them and asking to be saved. Sounds a lot like me. I need to learn from my mistakes and be saved also. and I am working on it.
Profile Image for Liesl.
4 reviews
October 12, 2015
I'm glad I got to see Don Jose Ruiz lecture about his book. He is very charismatic. My favorite analogy I took away from the book is that people are like rattlesnakes. When we are young and we hurt, we release the maximum amount of poison towards others and ourselves. As we mature we learn to control the amount of anger we give off.
Profile Image for Paula.
141 reviews
November 27, 2015
don Jose Ruiz is proving to be every bit as influential as his father. This was a great read about the ups and downs that naturally occur to each of us as individuals, and proof that we can move above and beyond our own egos to live a fulfilled life of love, joy and happiness.
Profile Image for N Mari.
1 review53 followers
March 14, 2015
Insightfully compassionate communication.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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