The Nine Pagan Virtues:
One of the first things the ADF Dedicant's Program teaches is to do right.
The virtues, as listed on the ADF webpage, are as follows:
Nine Pagan Virtues
- Wisdom: Good judgment, the ability to perceive people and situations correctly, deliberate about and decide on the correct response
- Piety: Correct observance of ritual and social traditions; the maintenance
of the agreements, (both personal and societal), we humans have with the Gods and Spirits. Keeping the Old Ways, through ceremony and duty
- 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
- Courage: The ability to act appropriately in the face of danger
- Integrity: Honor; being trustworthy to oneself and to others, involving oath-keeping, honesty, fairness, respect, self-confidence...
- Perseverance: Drive; the motivation to pursue goals even when that pursuit becomes difficult
- Hospitality: Acting as both a gracious host and an appreciative guest, involving benevolence, friendliness, humor, and the honoring of "a gift for a gift"
- Moderation: Cultivating one's appetites so that one is neither a slave to them nor driven to ill health, (mental or physical), through excess or deficiency
- Fertility: Bounty of mind, body and spirit, involving creativity, production of objects,
food, works of art, etc., an appreciation of the physical, sensual, nurturing...
Importantly, we can see that these are divided into Dumezil's three functions
of society: Wisdom, Piety and Vision are of the First Function; Courage,
Integrity and Honour are of the Second Function; and Hospitality, Moderation and
Fertility are of the Third Circle.
ADF encourages the Dedicant's to look at these Virtues critically, not to
accept them blindly. Hopefully, I've managed to do that. You will
find my interpretations of these below:
Wisdom
Piety
Vision
Courage
Integrity
Perseverance
Hospitality
Moderation
Fertility
Back to the Dedicant
Program's index.