Volume IV: Issue 2
Fall/Winter 2019
Welcome to the Fall/Winter Edition of the House Kheperu newsletter
We have a special announcement: the theme for Gather 2020 is Vision and our special guests will be Christopher Penczak, Steve Kenson and Adam Sartwell of the Temple of Witchcraft. Gather will once again be at the Hotel at Oberlin, June 12-14, 2020. Click here for registration: https://www.kheperu.org/registration. We look forward to seeing you!
Also in this issue: you'll be introduced to the new Priest Caste Guardian, an article on ghost hunting at Madison Seminary, a piece on the importance of shadow work, an interview with Adam Kimmel, owner of Madison Seminary and an interview that Michelle Belanger did with Dublin, Ireland college students on Vampire Ethnology.
Meet the new Priest Caste Guardian
Some of you may know me from Gather and yet others may know me by my art. My name is Cat Rogers and I have been affiliated with HK since 2012 and attending Gather since 2013. I’ve taught many classes and have focused most on reading energy bodies along with helping others develop their own skills for doing so. This past March 2019 I finally dedicated to the House and now I am going to be stepping into the role of Priest Caste Guardian. I felt that it was necessary to take the time to discuss more of who I am and where I have been but also address my aspirations for the future. I grew up in the middle of nowhere southeast Louisiana to a Sicilian American family on my father’s side. I stayed here through high school and lived through hurricane Katrina.
I’ve seen the best and worst of humanity and it has informed my life in ways that I could not fathom at the time. The disaster that was Katrina, illuminated not only the people around me but the very nature of myself. It was during this time that the first stirrings of my awakening occurred. I began to see and hear things which felt more like stray thoughts rather than paranormal experiences. I did what I could to interpret these thoughts and began to record them by drawing. As my abilities continued to awaken within me, I studiously explored and honed them. I earned a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design and I was off to Georgia. Once there my art and my abilities flourished. I learned to apply my developing psychic abilities through my art and have never looked back. My art and my awakening are so interwoven that I couldn't imagine any other way. I even take on energy body portraiture and offer these services on my website: Aetherbody.com.
As I ready to accept the position as Priest Caste Guardian, I have found myself excited to do more service within House Kheperu. Such a role is one of service to the House but also those outside of it. In the upcoming months I intend on doing more community outreach through the House Discord channel, which I invite you to join. Long distance rituals, discussions, and interactive events are ideas I will be developing and hope that you will come and find yourself welcome there. If you haven't joined Discord or have but haven't checked in for some time, I encourage you to. I've spent this October working on Inktober and you can find all the art and accompanying story there. I look forward to the future with my fellow House Kheperu members and the community who walks along with us.
Madison Seminary by Ges
Photos by Shannon Maynard
A few days before Gather this year several House members, Allies, and other folk got to spend the night at Madison Seminary, known as “the most haunted place in North East Ohio” and it lives up to the name in my opinion. It was a really interesting experience. Below is an section my journal of the evening, but this section focuses more on a funny experience rather than scary or profound. The full series of my experiences that night is available on my blog.
Myself and two others decided to investigate a room down a dark hall, where the shadow figure we had just encountered approached from. There were a lot of spirit children down there, peeking around corners and door frames. They were active, and curious, but didn’t want to engage us, or didn’t seem to be brave enough to do so. We decided to hang out in the one corner room, trying to get one of the children to come talk. Hopefully the children would be more open and curious if we just stayed in one spot instead of wandering around. I’m sitting in the window sill, one of us on the floor, and one against the wall. There are two doors to the room, the far door opens outward into the hall, and the other door opens into the room, and from where I’m sitting I can see between the door and the frame into the hallway, through the crack of the hinges. As we talk, I keep seeing a shadow obscure the bottom of that crack between door and frame, about the height of a child, as if they were sneaking around the door to look in at us. It is very clear, so clear I think it might actually have been physical sight.
I want confirmation on my perception so I ask the one person in our group to come sit where I was. I shine a flashlight on the spot I keep seeing the shadow, I stand up walk into the center of the room, keeping my flashlight on, explaining what I’ve been seeing, and I want his take. I turn off the flashlight, and suddenly where there was just a blank wall a moment before is a very dark humanoid shadow, clearly with a hand reaching out.
I freak, I jolt, my heart jumps, because holy fuck that’s the clearest spirit I’ve ever seen. For a split second, I’m excited by how clear this spirit was appearing. Then I realize it’s not a spirit... it’s my shadow. When I had the flashlight on you couldn’t see that light was shining in from another window against the wall, and I just happened to walk right into the path of that light, but my flashlight hiding it and the shadow I was casting. Once the light was off, suddenly there I was against the wall with the light from outside. The clear dark humanoid shadow was not a spirit, it was only me. It gave me a good laugh about myself.
No real moral to the story, just don’t take yourself too seriously, even in unnerving situations be open to the humour of the moment. If you’re interested in the rest of the experience, which is generally less funny, check out the posts on my blog, starting here. http://www.blueflamemagick.com/index.php/2019/09/26/madison-seminary-ghost-investigation-part-i-intro/
Paranormal Investigation + Shadow Work by Elyria Rose Little
Paranormal investigation can be really cool -- it's fun and adventurous, and anyone can do it. Using the latest gear, or just your five (or six?) senses, there's an innate appeal for many people to investigate.
By contrast, exploring our inner worlds doesn't seem cool on the surface. Shadow work is the painful, messy business of being honest with ourselves -- about our fears, about the things we really care about, about our feelings and desires. Doing shadow work can feel like doing a paranormal investigation. It's just that this investigation is entirely internal, and while other people may be able to help guide you, only you can do the real work. And it's not easy work.
So how will shadow work make you a better paranormal investigator?
Let me answer that with a story about an unnamed friend of mine from a few years back who was relatively new to paranormal investigation. They went into their first formal investigation aiming to impress the people they were investigating with -- I'm still not sure how aware they were of how important making a good impression was to them. Anyway, they overreacted, over-dramatized a lot of things, and made a fool of themselves with their overreactions. It has taken years to repair the trust there -- both the trust in their perceptions, and the trust in their ability to interpret those perceptions.
If my friend had been doing shadow work in the leadup to that investigation, if they had taken the time to understand that they were nervous, that making a good impression meant a lot to them, and to own the feelings instead of letting the feelings seep out and color their work, that would have been a much better situation -- for them, and for the people around them who wanted to believe in them.
How many times have you seen someone react on an investigation based on their interpretations of what's going on, instead of focusing on understanding what's really happening? Have you investigated with someone who was sure every shadow was a demon? What about the person who gets so caught up in their own bullshit that they start to believe it? Or maybe you've met someone like my friend, who's so caught up in the social dynamic and finding their place in it that they get misled by their own feelings into misinterpreting their feelings as paranormal phenomena?
Shadow work helps you deal with all that. Know yourself first -- then it becomes much, much easier to sort out whether a feeling is "yours" or whether it's a reaction to something happening on your investigation. Take the time to dig deep and ask yourself uncomfortable questions, get to know who you really are, and give yourself space to be exactly that person. If you know you get excited or dramatic around certain people, tell them that up front. If you know you clam up when you're perceiving really intense stuff, ask the people you're investigating with to talk to you if you get quiet.
While shadow work may sound annoying, or intimidating, or too much like therapy, it's actually one of the most powerful tools in any paranormal investigator's toolbox. Don't ignore it just because it doesn't have a price tag attached. Pick it up. Get to know your real self. And then take your newfound knowledge out into the field, and use it to become a better paranormal investigator -- and a better human being.
An interview with Adam Kimmel, owner of Madison Seminary and Lead Investigator for Resident Undead
Who am I:
My name is Adam Kimmell, I'm the owner of the Madison Seminary in Madison, Ohio, and also the lead investigator of Resident Undead.
What got me interested in the Paranormal?
As a child I never had any paranormal experiences that I can recall. I had a very normal childhood and it wasn't until my senior year of high school in 2003 that I was exposed to a few paranormal shows. Honestly, I thought they were all fake because at the time I had just enough understanding of film to cut to those conclusions. Although, it wouldn't be until 2008 when I was dared to enter a cemetery by myself with only a recorder that I would have my very first genuine paranormal encounter.
It was at the Nazareth Cemetery in Mercer, Pennsylvania, at around 3am. Armed only with a simple digital voice recorder, I walked through the darkness and into the oldest part of the cemetery. Some of these graves dated back to the turn of the century which only enhanced the creep factor. I only did a short recording for about 5 minutes where I only asked 3 questions. Now I can't even remember the first two questions because this was almost a decade ago, but the third question I'll never forget. I calmly asked "If there is anything you'd like me to tell your family, what would it be?"
During that recording at 3am in the cemetery, I didn't hear anything out of the normal, although when I returned back to my apartment it would be a different story. Upon reviewing the recorder, the third question was the only one to yield a response. Immediately after I asked the third question, you can hear a clear Class A capture of a man saying "help me". There was no mistaking it, and to make it even creepier, the clarity of the capture made it sound like he was standing right next to me.
For the next week I kept thinking about this EVP capture and how all of this may be very real. Like everything I do in life, it's pretty fast and furious, so I made my mind up that I was going to drop out of Slippery Rock University after studying politics for 5 years and completely take on a new direction in life of studying and documenting the paranormal. For the next year I would study film making and research topics within paranormal and occult research. In 2010 I would create my documentary series concept known as "Resident Undead" which mixes science and psychic phenomena together in order to yield the most superior results in an investigation.
Who, if anyone, do you consider as influences?
None
How did you discover Madison Seminary and what made you decide to start the process of owning it?
Back in 2011 I had the opportunity to film at the Madison Seminary. It was ironically the 3rd or 4th location I had ever conducted an investigation at. I remember being in complete amazement over the entire property. There was something super special about this place and back then I just couldn't put my finger on it. Then in 2014 I would come back again with Resident Undead and film another investigation. During that one it was almost like the place felt like home, and it was one of the first locations we'd double down on. Very rarely did we do return episodes but Madison Seminary was one of the few. The most interesting investigation was the final one before ownership, July 23rd, 2016. When we pulled up this time it really did feel different than any time before it. This is going to sound weird, but it just felt like I already owned it. The previous ownership did not even show up that day to let us into the building, they had given instructions to a mutual friend who got us in to film. But it wasn't even like I needed them there, everything just felt so routine to walking around the place and getting things set up.
We began filming that day at 8am for all of the b-roll and then began the actual investigation around 8pm. From then to about 4am, I had one of the most intense investigations of the last 6 years. By the end of the night, I don't know what came over me but I knew I was going to take the owners son outside and point blank ask him what it was going to take to buy this place, and that I did. It was the most out of character move for me but in the end it absolutely paid off. By doing just that, I was able to secure the property within about 5 weeks and everything is history from there on out.
To this day, I don't regret any of these decisions leading up to the purchase. It was a straight up dog fight in order to save the Madison Seminary, but it was a fight that needed to happen.
How did you and Rebecca Kirschbaum meet? What made you decide to use a psychic medium in your investigations?
I met Rebecca through a mutual friend back in September 2012 in Andover, New York to film an episode of Resident Undead at the Andover Sanitarium. It didn't take long for me to be completely impressed with her abilities. She had no knowledge of the location yet within minutes was feeding out so much information that the tour guides were speechless. Throughout the entire investigation I went hard on her because I needed to see how far her abilities could be pushed. I was captivated by her accuracy on such short notice and how it oddly enough assisted the investigation.
Prior to Rebecca, we were shooting into the dark hoping the dead would interact with us, but with having her there it was almost like we had eyes in the sky which would help us to better direct our questions to the most intelligent spirits at the location. Over the years we would fine tune her abilities with our tactics to create what Resident Undead is today.
Dublin Students
Vampire Ethnology Interview 2019
Subject: Belanger, Michelle
1) How is a female real vampire different from a male real vampire?
For the majority of folks involved in the modern community, there is no substantial difference between male-identified and female-identified vampires, and this (in my opinion) is part of the appeal. The vampire, as an identity archetype, is inspired and informed by pop-culture portrayals of vampires in fiction and film and one of the most empowering motifs of these fictional vampires is their inherent androgyny. In many of the stories, especially those that helped establish the canon of fictional vampires in 19th century English literature, vampires are depicted as beings transcending gender. In a number of the stories, vampires are portrayed as asexual or sexually transcendent: while remaining undeniably erotic figures, they no longer engage in traditional sexual activities. The libido and sexual hunger of the fictional vampire is redirected to blood, life, energy and, similarly, the sex act itself is transferred from the genitals to the mouth – penetration, fluid exchange, even procreation all occur with the vampire’s bite.
That’s the fiction, but it’s important to understand that when a community adopts a mythic archetype to help define its identity, those mythic elements become inextricable. No one in the modern vampire community believes that they are undead like Dracula, nor that they can transmit their identity like a contagion through a bite, but the ideas behind the fictional vampire – that transcendence of gender, which empowers the vampire to completely redefine what counts as “sex” – that has become a fundamental part of our community. Male, female, intersex, agender – the vampire identity rises beyond these things, allowing for a reinterpretation of sex, gender, and orientation.
This androgyne aspect of the vampire as an identity archetype is one of the primary reasons I believe you will see so many LGBTQIA+ folks active and out within the vampire community. The sex a person was assigned at birth simply doesn’t matter.
2) Are there any beliefs/values/traditions specifically oriented towards female vampires?
I am not aware of any traditions, values, or beliefs that are specific to female-identified vampires, nor similar traditions, values, or beliefs specific to male-identified vampires. By its very definition, the identity of the vampire is agender or at least fluid in gender, and so traditional models of what constitutes “male” and “female” within this community fall apart pretty quickly.
3) What are the characteristics of a “real” vampire? How do they define themselves? What makes them different/special?
A “real” vampire is a person who finds the archetype of the vampire useful in expressing their personal identity. There are many reasons for why this archetype appeals to members of the vampire community, and it can be as simple as the fact that they resonate with the aesthetic of pop-culture vampires, integrating that aesthetic into their personal fashion, their music and other artistic expression, and their personal philosophies. Individuals who are not strictly vampiric but who strongly resonate with the figure of the vampire are, within the community, broadly known as lifestylers. Some in the community may perceive them as posers, but I think it’s important for us to acknowledge the power of identity and the role choice can play in that identity: one does not have to have been born vampiric in order to find the vampire identity relevant to their personal experience.
Clearly, from my above statement, there is a division (at least in my perception) between someone who identifies as a vampire and someone who is inherently vampiric. It’s important to note that not everyone who is vampiric either adopts the term “vampire” as a self-identifier or participates in the modern vampire community. There are plenty of vampiric individuals who do not resonate at all with the pop-culture archetype of the vampire, and due largely to its influence upon the modern vampire community, they keep themselves apart from that community.
All of this requires that I explain what I mean when I use the term “vampiric” as a separate and distinct identifier from “vampire.” This is where the vampire verges away from merely an identity figure and moves into the territory of belief. Someone who is vampiric needs to regularly and actively take human vital energy in order to maintain their physical, emotional, and/or spiritual well-being. Whether this is through the imbibement of small quantities of blood from willing donors, as is the case with sanguine or sang vampires, or through the taking of vital energy through psychic abilities, as with psychic vampires. Those individuals who identify with the vampire archetype because they believe themselves to be inherently vampiric actually comprise a relative small portion of the community. Whether sanguine or psychic, vampiric individuals believe themselves to have been born this way (with only rare exceptions). They do not believe that their vampiric condition is something that can be passed like a contagion, nor do they believe that it can be cured like a disease. Many do not approach it in negative terms at all, despite the fact that they describe significant health impacts when they do not regularly and actively feed. Most feel that there is something inherently different about themselves that sets them apart (but not distinct from) other people. Many have developed spiritual and/or metaphysical beliefs abut what causes their vampirism and what vampirism means in an effort to both understand and contextualize their experiences.
4) How is the engagement between male and female vampires on a daily basis?
There is not a substantial enough difference between male-identified vampires and female-identified vampires either in social status or perceived power in order to make a difference between how one or the other is treated. If there is a power dynamic at work within the vampire community that might equate to a difference “between the sexes,” it is rather the difference between vampire and donor – those individuals who are active within the community but who do not identify as vampires themselves. Donors provide blood or energy willingly, sometimes as part of sexual encounters, but just as frequently in a platonic or asexual exchange.
Donors can be of any sex or gender, and it is important to note that a vampire can feed on any donor regardless of the vampire’s sexual identity. Vampiric feeding, although entwined with undeniable erotic associations for many because of pop-culture, is nevertheless separate from the sex-act and held distinct from it by the vast majority of the community. So, a male-identified vampire who views himself as completely straight can and may feed from a male-identified donor without creating a conflict with his sexuality. This is true across the gender spectrum.
While it is common for many members of the vampire community to partner with donors in romantic or sexual relationships, this is often born out of pragmatism and convenience. This is especially true in the case of sanguine vampires, where regular tests for blood-borne illness and sexually transmitted diseases are the rule for vampire and donor alike. While there are some monogamous vampires who will only feed from their romantic/sexual partner, these tend to be in the minority. Quite a number of vampires will have a primary partner (who may or may not also serve in the capacity of donor) while also maintaining connections with multiple donors – and these vampire-donor interactions are not viewed as a threat to the primary relationship, nor as cheating.
5) In terms of social inclusion, is there a difference regarding the gender?
As you can probably infer from my previous answers, when it comes to traditional gender models of male vs. female, there is little difference in the vampire community with respects to social exclusion. The same cannot be said about the vampire-donor dynamic. And I posit, for the purpose of understanding the social dynamics of the vampire community, it would be useful to apply traditional gender models and expectations not among the vampires themselves, but between vampires and donors.
Very broadly speaking, donors within the vampire community tend to occupy a social position that many outside of that community might otherwise attribute to women, if one were to view all vampires within the community through the lens of a patriarchy. This is not a perfect analogy by any stretch, but there is an undeniable power-dynamic at work between vampire and donor. Most vampire groups, courts, and houses address these inequalities, but there are a few, notably in the NYC “Gotham” community, that have actually made efforts to codify the inferiority of donors to vampires into their very structure.
These groups, which are in the minority and not well-liked for their choices, often use language toward donors that portrays them as necessarily submissive to vampires and even encourages the treatment of donors as property. This element within the community represents an extreme view, and their attitudes and practices have been steadily falling out of favor since the 90s, but the correlation between traditional (dysfunctional) gender dynamics and the vampire-donor relationship in these groups are striking. Of additional interest to ethnographic outsiders would be the fact that this unequal power dynamic as well as disparities in access and status between vampire and donor, play out regardless of the gender and/or sex of either vampire or donor. To some extent, the identities of “vampire” and “donor” replace for us what mainstream culture would identify as “male” and “female.”
6) Can you explain, in detail, the concept of the Open House, the House Kheperu?
House Kheperu, which takes its name from an old Egyptian word meaning, “to change, to become, to transform,” is a group I founded in 1996, shortly after closing my work with the International Society of Vampires. I’d run the ISV for several years as part of the underground ‘zine movement at the time, relying on newsletters and fanzines to keep members connected. The organization spread across the globe, with members in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. After doing work with journalists Jeff Guinn and Andy Greiser on their book, Something in the Blood, I realized I wanted something more personal and closer to home – a vampire group I could work with in person. Thus House Kheperu was born, although it would not bear that name for another couple of years.
Because I identify as a psychic vampire, and my particular type of vampirism relies heavily upon the ability to perceive, take, and otherwise manipulate energy, House Kheperu was started not only as a vampire house, but also as a magickal society devoted to the study, practice, and understanding of energy work. While not a religious organization per se, House Kheperu nevertheless takes a metaphysical approach to vampirism – not merely what it is, but also why it exists. As such, we are loosely a part of the modern magickal movement, straddling a sometimes delicate position between theistic Wiccans and Pagans on one hand and the somewhat anti-theistic practitioners in the Left Hand Path community on the other.
House Kheperu views itself as a wisdom tradition, and our motto is Seek Your Own Truth. We hold learning and self-knowledge as core values, as well as tolerance and bridge-building between communities. Although we have a ritual structure loosely based off the Pagan Wheel of the Year, we worship no gods as a group and many of our members identify with and practice other religions. We see no conflict with this as long as the other traditions are themselves not exclusive. Members are encouraged to learn and explore many different traditions and pathways to knowledge, not merely religious and spiritual, but also scientific, philosophic, and psychological. We hold that, if there is such a thing as “truth” attainable to human beings, it will be found not in one single path to understanding, but through a survey of all of them.
The House Kheperu Open House, or Gather as it’s come to be known through the years, began as an outward expression of this need to seek, to teach, and to engage in the exchange of differing perspectives, traditions, and viewpoints. The first event was primarily for different groups and individuals active within the vampire community at the time, and it was held in NE Ohio on the weekend of October 13, 2000. Since then, we have held at least one event per year over a three-day weekend, expanding to include not merely members of the vampire community but also otherkin, Pagans, energy workers, New Agers, open-minded Christians, Buddhists, scientists, and anyone else with an interest in exploring discussions about the nature of energy, spirit, and psychic and/or paranormal phenomena. House Kheperu, which has its own practices and classes throughout the year, views its work in hosting this yearly event as a service to the greater community. Although we serve to facilitate the dialogue at the event, we have no requirement for anyone participating to adhere to our tradition, rather encouraging a diversity of paths and views.
7) Are people around you (in general) aware that you are a vampire (family members, friends)? How do/did they react? Among vampires you know, is there a difference between men and women “coming out”?
As I’ve worked as a media liaison for the vampire community since 1996, my face and identity are both extremely visible, and so the majority of people around me know how I identify. When I was first wrestling with accepting the identity myself, back in high school and early college, coming out was a little more complicated. I approached my birth family with my thoughts about being a vampire with varied results. My grandmother didn’t want to talk about it. A couple of my aunts decided that I was Satanic and wouldn’t hear anything to the contrary. My mother wasn’t particularly surprised, as she’d witnessed some of my behaviors and abilities when I was a child. My maternal grandfather (a decorated WWII vet, eighty at the time) was the most surprising: when I came out to him in the months before my Psychic Vampire Codex was published, he cried – and finally managed to choke out: “You mean there’s a word for this? I always thought I was alone.”
Is there a substantial difference in how male-identified vampires come out versus female-identified vampires? Broadly speaking, I’d have to say no, although I have noticed that vampires who were raised and continue to identify as cisgendered heterosexual men have a tendency to remain closeted with family and friends, and I think this is because they’re reluctant to appear strange or be alienated for this difference. For vampires who fall somewhere on the LGBTQIA spectrum who have already come out about one thing that sets them apart from the perceived “norm,” I think it’s much easier to be open about their vampiric identity as well, because what’s one more thing?
8) For those of you who are drinking blood, what are the benefits from it in terms of health/well-being. Why does it make you feel better/what does it bring to you?
Not applicable to me. While I believe a psychic vampire could use a blood exchange with a willing human donor as a focus for taking the vital energy they require, I’ve always found it simpler to just take the energy itself without involving blood or other physical carriers.
9) As most of people know vampirism through fiction, are there things you can really identify with (for example, live during the night and stay away from the sun)?
There are pop-culture aspects of the vampire archetype that make the identity relevant to this community – this is one of the many reasons the vampire community resonates with the vampire as a label, as opposed to many other potential options, including “witch,” or “shaman,” or even “otherkin,” despite some cross-over amongst these and other identities. While it is not true for everyone, the vast majority of people in the vampire community will tell you that they prefer being awake and active at night. Some will attest that this is not merely a preference but an inborn trait, and something they naturally did from childhood up.
There are many members of the community who profess to have a sensitivity to sunlight. Some are merely photosensitive, others attest to getting sick when overexposed to sunlight or heat, burning easily, experiencing a rapid onset of sunstroke or heatstroke, etc. For most of these individuals, thee are not unsubstantiated claims or psycho-somatic effects. Sun, light, and heat sensitivity represent significant enough problems for those who suffer from them in the vampire community that those individuals have sought medical care and medical opinions and potential treatments for the problems. Most come back with confirmation of symptoms, but no certain diagnosis of causes, although diagnoses of migraine and fibromyalgia are statistically high within our community. The Atlanta Vampire Alliance ran an extensive survey designed by individuals associated with universities to get an accurate sense of our community’s demographics, and the resulting spread of symptoms and diagnoses prompted students and faculty at SUNY Medical to inquire whether or not we might be suffering from a previously undiagnosed syndrome which we have contextualized as vampirism. Despite many members of the vampire community being interested in further exploration of this possibility by qualified medical and/or scientific researchers, no formal studies have been done to date of which I am aware.
On a lighter note, more individuals who identify as vampires have no trouble at all with garlic. No one is compelled to sleep in a coffin (although a few of us have done so on a lark, often as playful self-satire). No one is repelled by a Cross or other religious trappings. There is some belief within the community concerning longevity, or at least a prolonged appearance of youth, the merit of which is dubious. For those of us who believe in immortality, our belief is not in the immortality of the body, but the immortality of the soul, typically through reincarnation.
10) As someone who identifies as a real vampire, did it change anything to you in your daily life for example with your job? Did you discover other interests?
My identity as a vampire certainly had an impact upon my life, and especially my choice of career. I was a National Merit Scholar. I attended university on a full-ride scholarship. I graduated Magna Cum Laude. I was in the Honors Program. It was my intention at the time to continue to my Ph.D. and ultimately teach as a professor myself. But I was well aware that, if I were to openly pursue my identity as a vampire, I would likely never get tenure. As it was, my Jesuit Catholic college, once they got wind of some of my alternative practices and views, began locking my out of opportunities, discouraging me from participation in academic events, and, in at least one case, halting a yearly poetry award until I graduated because, after I won three years in a row, they had no desire to give it to me a fourth time. John Carroll University was not unique in this prejudicial treatment. Surprisingly, the other faith community that has had the strongest negative reaction to my vampiric identity has been the Pagan community. There are still stores across the US and abroad that refuse to stock any of my books (whether those books are about vampires or not) based solely on my identity as a vampire. I guess ignorance is a multi-faith problem.
11) I've read about blood and energy feeding, are there other ways?
Most individuals who deem themselves vampiric feed either through blood or energy, although there are some that identify as primarily sexual feeders, which is to say that they use the sex act as their point of focus for taking energy from their donors. For most psychic vampires who take energy as their expression of vampirism, sex can be used as a focus for taking energy, but it is not essential to the process. A skilled psychic vampire can take energy with a touch. When working with an established donor with whom they have a strong connection, some psychic vampires can take energy efficiently over a distance, in much the same way that an energy worker or Reiki practitioner can send energy for healing remotely.
12) Are you familiar with Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire”? What do you think of it? Did it really have such a big influence for the modern vampires nowadays and their identities?
The main contribution of Anne Rice’s work to the modern community was her portrayal of some vampires operating in covens. A lot of people in the community have forgotten (or weren’t around for these days), but in the very nascence of the vampire community’s online presence, the first iteration of the New York City “Gotham” court – what you’ll hear variously named The Sanguinarium, Clan Sabretooth, Sahjaza, or Strigoi Vii – was the coven.org. This was named in a conscious echo of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. That was 1996-1997. Shortly thereafter, to make a clear distinction between the witchcraft community, which also calls its small groups “covens,” the NYC vampire community switched instead to “houses.” My group House Kheperu was named that way in response to an outreach project from the NYC Sanguinarium to collect and connect vampire groups operating across the US from 1998 to about 2000.
13) Can vampirism be considered as a religion with your different rituals and beliefs? Or do you have a religion as everyone else such as Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Catholics and so on?
The question of whether or not vampirism is a religion is a tricky one, as most vampires do not personally see their beliefs in vampirism as religious in nature (despite the role of belief). Certainly, one can be a vampire and also be an adherent of a separate religion, and this is widespread within the community. I have met and worked with vampires who are Catholic, vampires who are Jewish, vampires who are Atheists, Muslim, Pagan, and every possible variation in between. Notably, many of these participate in vampiric spiritual practices and rituals in addition to their individual religious systems. There are certainly some members of the vampire community who approach their vampirism as a spiritual path, but even these integrate that awareness with another established religious system, typically some variety of modern Paganism.
14) Are you familiar with the Otherkin? as I've read many vampires identify with this group as well, what's the difference between the two? What makes real vampires an identity in itself?
The funny thing (to me) when people ask this is that I was one of the first people to actively try to build a bridge between these two communities. Otherkin, under that specific term, first came to my attention through a convention operating out of Kitchener, ON in Canada. The convention was called KinVention North and a member of House Kheperu at the time had been a presenter there for a couple of years but had not come out to the participants as a vampire. It’s important to understand that, at this time (1999-2000), there was virtually no cross-over between the two communities, certainly not overt intermingling, and where the two communities converged at all, it was in opposition to one another. Few members of the vampire community took the idea of Otherkin serious, if they’d run across the concept at all, and the Otherkin, for their part, viewed vampires as de facto predators that, if allowed into a community that worked with magick and energy, would do nothing but feed off its members.
My member from House Kheperu wanted me to come up as a presenter to KinVention North and teach them about vampires, the community, and the ethics practiced within that community. As the individual responsible for writing the most widely practiced set of ethical guidelines for the vampire community at the time (and even today), I was ideal for this – and it allowed my member to continue to work with his friends without outing himself.
I reached out to the event organizers. They were a little leery of having a vampire among the Otherkin, but I was well established as a public figure at that time and my reputation as both an academic speaker and an ethical practitioner of vampirism convinced them to give me a chance. And once I was given a chance to observe their community, I saw quite a lot of cross-over, particularly the adoption and repurposing of otherwise mythical figures as tools of identity. For my community, this was the vampire. For the Otherkin, it was not any single mythic archetype, but the result as well as the impulse was the same. Shortly after attending KinVention North in 2000, I started the work of building bridges between the two communities, encouraging dialogue, and trying to dispel the misinformation and prejudices on both sides. Some of this is reflected in my choice to include Otherkin as a clearly defined category in the definitions section of my Psychic Vampire Codex in 2004, which was, to my knowledge, the first time anyone had defined the term in a book published by a third party publisher and released to the mainstream.
The two communities remain distinct, although there is definite cross-over. There are some individuals who are vampiric, and to them, the reason for their vampirism is explained by their additional identity as Otherkin. In recent years, I’ve also seen a growing mingling of the social aspect of these two communities, not merely online, but in real-time communities like those of Austin, Dallas, and Houston, Texas. Otherkin join vampire groups and houses there because there is no equivalent structure or social outlet for Otherkin in those areas, and the vampires – more devoted to tolerance and diversity than you might expect – are happy to have them.
15) Do you know any article, academic paper, book which is good and interesting on real vampirism in general, and more specifically on women and vampirism or vampirism and religion?
I strongly recommend Joseph Laycock’s Vampires Today (and honestly anything by him). Other academic names to look for include John Browning and DJ Williams. I’ve worked directly with these scholars and they each bring different and valuable insights & backgrounds to the table when it comes to cataloguing and analyzing the modern vampire community.
Thanks for reading! Remember to subscribe to get the next edition of the Midnight Sun delivered to your inbox.
