Virtues - Integrity

Integrity: Honor; being trustworthy to oneself and to others, involving oath-keeping, honesty, fairness, respect, self-confidence¹

Integritynoun \in-ˈte-grə-tē\

: the quality of being honest and fair

: the state of being complete or whole²

I find integrity to be the rarest virtue in the modern world, and the very act of trying to live as a person of integrity, nearly revolutionary. From personal experience, I know that there can be no integrity without courage, or perseverance.

As a person of a more Germanic persuasion, my immediate association with integrity is with oath-keeping, and the disdain historically reserved for oath-breakers. The oath is sacred, and for good reason, for how could a community rely on a person if they cannot trust his or her word? Or even know who that person is because they're lacking in the necessary self-confidence to be authentic?

The ability to keep an oath, was one that was valued among many IE cultures, and I believe the virtue of integrity is necessary for modern Pagans/Druids/Heathens if we want the paths we walk so joyously to still be here for our children. Integrity is one of the most effective ways of avoiding the kinds of strife that so often plague our communities.

1
  Our Own Druidry: An Introduction to Ar nDraiocht Fein and the Druid Path (p. 62). Tucson, Arizona: ADF Publishing.

2  (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity