Lewis Stead

The Ravenbook

is reputation. Internal honor is the

sacred moral compass that each Asatruar and God should hold dear. It

is the inner dwelling at peace which comes from living in accordance

with ones beliefs and with ones knowledge of the Truth of what one is

doing. It is something deeply personal and heartfelt, almost akin to

an emotion. Its a knowing that what one is doing is right and

decent and correct.

In many ways while the most important of all the virtues it is also

the most ephemeral in terms of description. It is all the other

virtues rolled together and then still more. The best way I have

found to describe honor is that if you are truly living with honor,

you will have no regrets about what you have done with your life.

Fidelity

Fidelity is a word that is far too often defined by its narrow use in

terms of marital fidelity. By the dictionary it simply means being

faithful to someone or something. In marriage this means being true

to ones vows and partner, and this has been narrowly defined as

limiting ones sexual experience to ones spouse. While I have found

this to be great practical advice, many treat fidelity as if there

were no other ways in which one could be faithful or unfaithful.

For we Asatruar fidelity is most important in terms of our faith and

troth to the Gods. We must remain true to the Aesir and Vanir and to

our kinsmen. Like marriage, Profession (the rite in which one enters

the Asatru faith, similar to Christian confirmation or Wiccan

initiation) is a sacred bond between two parties; in this case an

Asatruar and the Gods. In order for such a relationship to work, both

must be honest and faithful to each other.

Asatru, although currently being reborn, is at its roots a folk

religion and we also uphold the value of fidelity to the ways of our

ancestors. This is why historical research is so important to the

Asatru-folk: it is the rediscovering of our ancient ways and our

readoption of them.

Discipline

In any discussion of the values of Asatru, discipline is best

described as self-discipline. It is the exercise of personal will

that upholds honor and the other virtues and translates impulse into

action. If one is to be able to reject moral legalism for a system of

internal honor, one must be willing to exercise the self-discipline

necessary to make it work. Going back to my earlier criticism of

society, if one rejects legalism, one must be willing to control ones

own actions. Without self-discipline, we have the mess we currently

see in our culture.

Looking at discipline in terms of fidelity, we see a close connection.

Many Pagans go from faith to faith, system to system, path to path.

Asatruar are much less likely to do this. The discipline of keeping

faith with our Gods and the ways of our ancestors is part of our

modern practice. In this way, we limit ourselves in some ways, but we

gain much more in others.

Hospitality

Hospitality is simply one of the strongest core values at the heart of

virtually every ancient human civilization. In a community/folk

religion such as our own, it is the virtue that upholds our social

fabric. In ancient times it was essential that when a traveler went

into the world he could find some sort of shelter and welcome for the

night. In modern times it is just as essential that a traveler find

friendship and safety.

In our modern Asatru community, we need to treat each other with

respect and act together for the good of our community as a whole.

This functions most solidly on the level of the kindred or hearth

where non-familial members become extremely close and look out for

each other. It can mean hospitality in the old sense of taking in

people, which weve done, but in modern times its more likely to mean

loaning someone a car or a bit of money when they need it (thats

need, not want).

Part of hospitality is treating other people with respect and dignity.

Many of our Gods are known to wander the world and stop in at peoples

houses, testing their hospitality and generosity. The virtue of

hospitality means seeing people as if they were all individuals with

self-respect and importance. Or perhaps from time to time, they are

literally the Gods in human form. This has profound implications for