9 Pagan Virtues

 This is a personal project to help me understand the Pagan Virtues better.

August 2024
In 2023, I tried to write my first essay on the Virtues because they were the first ones of the Dedicant Path list.  I spent about 9 days on them, starting my mornings with daily prayer and meditation.  Then I'd draw tarot cards--I believe I use the Wildwood Tarot--with Garanus Crane.  I'd reflect on those sessions.

I decided to hold off on writing the essay, and instead just sit with the virtues for a while.  Live life with them--seeing them in my life as I did.  I often compared them to the Pillars that I still followed from when I was a Hellenic Pagan--they weren't that different.  

My Pillars are:

1. Arete - Be your best self.
2. Metriotes - Everything in Moderation.
3. Hagneia - Avoid Miasma.
4. Sophia - Pursuit of Wisdom.
5. Sophrosune - Self Discipline.
6. Xenia - Hospitality.
7. Eusebeia - Revere and Be Loyal to the Gods.

This time around--links below--on Sunday mornings, I reflect on the Virtue, meditate on a prayer written by Rev. Dangler about the Spirit of said Virtue, reflect on that, and then ask a deity about what rune(s) They feel best represent the Virtue.  I spend a week working with it--seeing it in my life and such.

Nine Pagan Virtues (page 13 of Our Own Druidry):

1. Wisdom - "Good judgement, the ability to perceive people and situations correctly, deliberate about and decide ton the correct response."
2. Piety / Reflection - "Correct observances of ritual and social traditions; the maintenance of the agreements, both personal and societal, that we humans have with the Gods and Spirits.  Keeping the Old Ways, through ceremony and duty."
3. Vision - "The ability to broaden one's perspective to have a greater understanding of our place / role in the cosmos, relating to the past, present, and future."
4. Courage - "The ability to act appropriately in the face of adversity."
5. Perseverance - "Drive; the motivation to pursue goals even when that pursuit becomes difficult."
6. Integrity - "Honor; being true to one's self and to others, involving oath-keeping, honesty, fairness, respect and self-confidence."
7. Hospitality - "Acting as both gracious host and appreciative guest, involving benevolence, friendliness, humor, and the honoring of a gift for a gift."
8. Moderation - "Cultivating one's appetites so that one is neither a slave to them nor drive to ill health (mental or physical) through excess or deficiency."
9. Fertility - "Bounty of mind, body, and spirit involving creativity and industry, an appreciation of the physical and sensual, nurturing these qualities in others."

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Resources

1. Ar nDraiocht Fein.  Our Own Druidry.  ADF Publishing.  2009.
2. Dangler, Rev. Michael J.  The Fire on Our Hearth: A Devotional of Three Cranes Grove, ADF.  Second Edition.  Garanus Publishing.  2010.