Virtuous Living

I first studied Virtues when my oldest son was a toddler - I wanted to raise him with an understanding of choice and a consciousness around making that choice. This led me to spend more than 30 years considering virtues and how they interplay with spirituality, intention and subsequent choices of behavior. 

Virtues are not things you have — they are states of being you choose to inhabit. This concept is a radical reframe from classical virtue ethics, where virtues are built through repetition until they become character. Below is an overview of how I work with, and teach, Virtuous Living:

The Three-Layer Philosophy:

1. Virtue as Consciousness, Not Conduct

Most virtue traditions focus on behavior — do the right thing enough times and you become virtuous. This is an old framework that misses the importance of the order of creation!  Before the action comes the state, and before the state comes the choice. Virtue lives in that pregnant moment between stimulus and response. That gap — that sacred pause — is where consciousness lives. That is where your empowerment exists.
This is Christed Consciousness in practice: not performing goodness, but being it — and knowing the difference.

2. Virtue as Relational — Never Isolated

Virtues only truly exist in relationship. Patience requires someone or something to be patient with. Compassion requires another's experience to meet. Generosity requires a receiver. This is not weakness in the framework — it is the whole point. We are not here to perfect ourselves in isolation. We are here to practice divinity in contact with life.
The 24 virtues (listed below) are therefore not a personal achievement list. They are a relational field — a way of describing the quality of connection you are capable of holding.

3. Virtue as Sacred Response-Ability

The word responsibility breaks open beautifully here: response-ability — the ability to choose your response. Every virtue is a form of response-ability. Not reaction (which is automatic, conditioned, ego-driven) but response — which is awake, intentional, soul-led. This is where Soul Coaching, altar related work, and readings converge: Our services help you build your capacity to respond from your highest nature rather than react from your wounds.

The Christed Consciousness Thread

When I refer to "Christed Consciousness", I'm not referring to a religious designation — I'm referring to a quality of awareness. It is the consciousness that:
  • Sees the divine in all things
  • Chooses love as a discipline, not just a feeling
  • Takes full responsibility for its own energy and impact
  • Serves the whole without martyrdom
  • Holds others in their highest without bypassing their humanity
The 24 virtues are essentially the lived vocabulary of this consciousness. They are how Christed Consciousness moves through a human life — in ordinary moments, in conflict, in grief, in joy, in community.
"Virtue is not who you are supposed to be. It is who you are already capable of being — in this moment, by choice. Each virtue is a doorway. Walk through it consciously and you step into alignment with your highest self, with others, and with the sacred intelligence moving through all of life. This is not self-improvement. This is remembering."
- Cheryl Andrea / Celestara

 

The 24 Virtues for Living A Conscious Life:

The Foundation - Being With Self:

The inner ground from which all relating flows - from within us, out and into - the outer world.

  • Humility
  • Integrity
  • Discernment
  • Patience
  • Courage
  • Equanimity

The Heart - Being With Others: 

The qualities that make us safe and nourishing to be around and interact with.

  • Compassion
  • Kindness
  • Forgiveness
  • Empathy
  • Generosity
  • Reverence

The Bridge - Building Together: 

The virtues that make collective life functional and beautiful!

  • Reciprocity
  • Accountability
  • Trustworthiness
  • Cooperation
  • Respect
  • Communication

The Light - Serving the Greater Whole: 

Virtues that orient us toward something larger than ourselves and create the cohesive "we are one".

  • Gratitude
  • Service
  • Stewardship
  • Justice
  • Wisdom
  • Faith