SCROLL FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome to the August 2023 edition of The Midnight Sun!
Y’all, it’s hot.
If you couldn’t tell from the “y’all”, I live in the South. So while your mileage may vary a little bit, it’s still been record temperatures all over. I hope you’re staying cool and hydrated!
This month’s Leo Season kicks off with SOLAR FLARE themes! We have a Hot Hot Playlist for you fresh out of the Spotify oven from the loving hands of House Members. Suz brings us some mindfulness and tips on reconnecting with nature, we have n excerpt from the FAQ to be included with the updated, in-progress Psychic Vampire Codex from HK founder and author M. Belanger, yours truly has a soap-box on “Can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”, and the member spotlight of our very own sweet baby Leo and Tarot Student Extraordinaire - Buck!
Whatever your Summer plans are, or if you’re headed back to school for yourself or spawn, may you have much water to drink, your frozen treat of choice, and may your AC stay functional as the MVP until the Spooky Season hits us with that good Fall breeze!
~Miranda (Frick)
Curator and Editor of TMS
HK JAMS - Spirit of Flame
It’s hot out but are you inspired internally? Spark fire in your soul with this blazing August playlist. Move, dance, chill, and create with fire.
Compassion, Empathy and the Natural World
By Suz
"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
~ Dalai Lama
It has long been assumed that selfishness, greed and competitiveness lie at the core of human behavior, the products of our evolution. It is easy to see how these assumptions have guided the realms of human affairs, from policy making to the way the media portrays our social lives.
Compassion is a natural tendency and essential for human survival. Without it, the survival and flourishing of our species would have been unlikely. Logic would follow that compassion for our environment and Nature itself would be important to human survival, right?
Even though our personal circumstances, cultures, upbringings may be different, we fundamentally all have the same yearnings, rights, desire to be happy and not suffer. And we must feel these things at heart level. Only then can we cultivate compassion towards others.
We are all part of a deeply interconnected, social mind, with huge potential significance for our future. Shadow work, Empathy and why it is so important! We must understand and be aware of our dark side and cultivate empathic imagination. We are not prisoners of our genes, we have choice and freewill, and the natural human condition is to be kind. Empathy is a complex emotion that helps people build connections with others — when we imagine how it feels to be another person, we can start to understand their suffering and joy. In nature, children can start to learn empathy by appreciating and caring for plants and animals. Understanding how nature works may make us feel more connected and appreciate the importance of the delicate balance.
As humans we have become largely disconnected to our relationship with nature and therefore, earth. Seen as a commodity more than a living, breathing work of art - earth has been, unsustainably, stripped down to her resources and in many cases, seen more prevalently on screen than with our own eyes.
How do we reconnect? Intentionally, Mindfully and Daily!
Like your morning coffee, daily workout or mental health practice, in order for us to realign to Nature with compassion and empathy, we must stand on the soil, notice the leaves, hear the birds and reclaim the essential importance of that relationship. Relationships take work, and we call her Mother Naure for a reason.
In Japan, they have practiced the art of Forest Bathing (known as Shinrin Yoku) for years, as a mental health practice and way to realign with higher meaning. At its core, these practices are a daily physical reconnect to the earth and her beautiful nature - most importantly, through the lens of empathy. Indigenous people all over the world hold a deep reverence for nature.
Native Americans operate under the conviction that all objects and elements of the earth—both living and nonliving—have an individual spirit that is part of the greater soul of the universe. This culture is fiercely devoted to respecting and honoring the spirit of the land and everything with which it provides them. The belief that ALL life is sacred and comes from the land implies that Mother Earth is also divine. Within Native American culture nature is the foundational anchor of which all life and spirit is built.
"Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our animal neighbours the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land." ~ Sitting Bull
So how do we cultivate this compassion and empathic connection with the Natural world around us?
GO OUTSIDE! Take daily activities outside- coffee, meals, walk barefoot or lay down on the grass.
Make a daily practice of taking 5 minutes to notice the sky.
Plant something and nurture it!
Get thee into a FOREST!
Meditate on your connection to the natural web of life and your part in it!
Go to that cute little farmers market and buy locally grown fruits and veggies or grow your own but then as you eat them, contemplate what life might look like without them.
And the hardest one for modern man- Take an extended break from technology. (Don't grumble at me..do it!)
Perhaps part of our shadow work should be more contemplation of what our lives would look like without the Natural world. Pretty bleak... So appreciate what we have now, savor your connection to the Natural world we so often forget to notice. Life is so beautiful and each one of us has the responsibility to make it colorful and magical. Look around. We can see the beauty in nature, animals, birds, trees, sky, sun, moon earth. This beautiful world is all for us.
Enjoy living here and help others to find their joy in it.
House Kheperu Member Spotlight
buck
“Adapt or die”
What interests you about energy work?
My biggest interest about energy work is how I can take a space and fill it up with happy good feeling energy and make it feel safe. I use energy work to sooth, comfort and protect. For myself, my family and my friends. Using energy powers for the forces of good!
What is one of your favorite movies?
The Little Mermaid was always my favorite Disney movie growing up. I love the music and I resonate with the feeling like I didn’t belong and wanted to go somewhere else. I wanna be… where the gays are! And the live action was freaking amazing, and I want to watch it over and over and over.
The Psychic Vampire Codex Returns
by M. Belanger
The Vampire Codex, under one name or another, has been a core text of Kheprian teachings since its initial creation in 1994. Released first as the Codex Sanguinicus through the International Society of Vampires in the middle 90s, it’s seen publication in a startling variety of formats, from pamphlets and zines to an AOL homepage, a digital resource on sacred-texts.com and, of course, the familiar 2004 Weiser edition.
If you’ve been searching for a copy of the popular Weiser edition, you’ve probably noticed that it’s out of print. That’s because we took the rights back in preparation for a new release. A second edition of the Psychic Vampire Codex will be released in September – unchanged in content but updated in language to bring this nearly thirty-year-old text into the 21st century.
If you order a copy, you will notice one shiny new section: an appendix of frequently asked questions. This FAQ functions as a synopsis of the book’s foundational concepts, covering questions about the nature of vampirism, the ethics of feeding, and the triumvirate system. Here’s a little taste:
Excerpt from the Psychic Vampire Codex FAQ
Does learning how to take energy make me a vampire?
Everyone – arguably every thing – both gives and takes energy. Every breath, every touch, every interaction involves an exchange. The energy of life, regardless of what you call it, fuels us on a fundamental level, supplementing any magickal or psychic work we might perform. Because of this, learning how to take energy is not an exclusive talent of psychic vampires. Rather, bringing our relationship with energy into conscious control is beneficial to everyone.
Are vampires born or made?
To dispel a widespread myth: There is no exclusive, secret ritual out there that will transform you into a vampire. That’s a trope for the movies. However, a variety of initiatory experiences have been mistaken for “turning” rituals. Engaging in a profound energy exchange (either feeding or being fed from), participating in magick or ritual, spirit contact, reconnecting with someone from a previous life, spontaneous dreamwalking – all of these experiences can trigger an awakening easily mistaken for being “turned.” But these are simply moments that lift us out of our everyday existence and provide an intense enough experience that we have little choice but to question the nature of our reality and our place in it.
So, how does one become a vampire? The condition of being vampiric – i.e. needing to feed upon energy – is often innate: you’re born this way. But that’s not true in every case. People can become temporarily vampiric as a result of severe energetic damage, chronic illness, even spiritual attachments. If the underlying issue is resolved, the vampiric tendencies may slowly go away. Sometimes it’s not possible to resolve the issue, so the vampirism becomes a person’s new normal. That doesn’t make them any less real than someone born with the same innate needs.
Note that I’ve tried to use the term vampiric as opposed to vampire. There’s a reason for the language shift. Within the greater vampire community, there has been a long-standing debate about whether vampirism is an identity – something you can choose – or an innate characteristic – something you’re born with. People don’t choose to be vampiric – the need to feed upon energy is something you have or you don’t. But being a vampire – that can be an identity. It can be a choice – or a calling.
Let me explain.
The vampire as a concept in popular culture has developed into a powerful magickal archetype. The folkloric roots of the vampire may not hold the same appeal as the vampire as presented in current literature and films, but the same could be said of the witch – a magickal identity many people have grown to accept.
To this end, one can choose the vampire as a personal identity and as such, it constitutes as valid and powerful a magickal archetype as the witch. When approached as an identity – an empowering magickal archetype – one does not need to strictly be vampiric in order to be a vampire. Just as not everyone who is innately vampiric will identify themselves as vampires.
Identity is complex.
Can’t stand the heat?
Pulls out soap-box
Can’t stand the heat? Then get out of the kitchen…
…As the saying goes. What does that idiom really mean, though? I heard my gramma and my mom, and many other polite Southerners say this over the course of my life. As a neurodivergent child, it baffled me to frustration as my brain screamed “WE’RE NOT IN A KITCHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND!” I do remember having to ask my mom why the hell everyone used it when we weren’t in a kitchen when I was like… ten or eleven.
Of course, the idiom translates to “If you are unable to tolerate the pressure, stress, or otherwise circumstance causing you discomfort, then it is time to stop, move on, remove yourself from the situation, or give up that particular thing”. Which, can at times be good advice if taken literally. Giving oneself a break, stepping away from heavy or stressful circumstances, and having the self-awareness to analyze these things can be important. Though to my experience this is usually stated in a derisive, judgemental fashion to varied degrees of “If you can’t perform, go away because you’re useless.” Not always, and not often how my grandmother meant it - she use it in a far more literal-adjacent tone of “We need to finish this thing, if you can’t help right now please move. I’ll let you know when we’re done.”
But societal implications and traumas aside, the idiom is not the soap box today. Today’s rant comes to us from an awareness of when this phrase and all of its baggage pop into my head; when people take on more than they are capable of handling, accomplishing or doing, from a place of “should have known better”.
There IS value in “fuck around and find out”. Many of us don’t know our limitations in all situations, and won’t, until we find the thing that makes us stumble, drop the ball or inadvertently break something (because what is pushing your limits without challenge?). Those situations can be frustrating, but can also be necessary - and it’s okay to make mistakes! That’s not what I am referencing here. The situations that bring out the soap box are when I see folks not respecting the limits that they should. That they know, or strongly suspect. Those moments of saying yes because of insecurity, lack of self-awareness, or no objectivity can lead to disappointment. Be in oneself and/or from others unnecessarily, resulting in situations where the position could have been filled more efficiently, or responsibilities split elsewhere. Even fully detrimental to an overall project or endeavor.
It’s important to develop that objectivity, that self awareness. It’s also important to challenge yourself. It’s ADDITIONALLY important to know when and where to do so. Going back to our idiom “If you can’t stand the heat…”, I’ll point out that things become tempered to heat resistance… often by exposure to small-scale, controlled bouts of heat. However if not controlled, intentional bouts, those same things can crack, be warped, or damaged.
And this comes for me too - it is not from a place of judgement or criticism, more from a place of “learn from my mistakes, friend, and be kinder to yourself than you were taught to be.”
So while I do think divorcing the idiom from generational trauma and legacy burden is likely impossible, it could be a good lesson. “If you can’t stand the heat… go find smaller scale things in which you can temper your heat resistance in more controlled, intentional environments.” Practice self-awareness. Practice objectivity. Know your limits and know where it is a healthy environment for yourself and others to push those limits. Practice transparency and communication. If you’re not sure, ask! “Hey, I think I could push myself to grow here, but on the off chance I’m not ready for this yet, what is the risk level?”
I’m all for fuck around and find out, good or bad. It’s how we learn and grow sometimes. But if there’s a serious, stressful, high-octane, high-stakes situation where it could be detrimental to the people around you if you fuck around, find out and fail… then prepare to own those actions and shoulder the consequences. You are responsible for your words and actions. You are responsible for learning to temper your heat resistance. And if you crack or shatter, it rarely does you nor the people around you, any good.
Puts soapbox away
Keep it Honest, my friends.
~Frick
Hot Projects we love
New Blood Universe
Recently rebranded, New Blood Universe continues to be something we’re very excited about and looking forward to seeing! If you haven’t checked it out, follow the link down the rabbit hole to authentic, inclusive, real-life vampires, cryptids, and seekers in search of answers to this weird, woo-filled world in which we live!
The Vampire Jack Townson - Fame Has It’s Price
Pre-orders available now! Set in a fictional world not unlike our own, join the story, intrigue, and lore from the mind of Jack Townson, the Vampire King of Tiktok!
Check it out on Amazon here!
The Psychic Vampire Codex - NEW EDITION!
Presently in progress with author and House Kheperu founder M. Belanger, it has been officially announced that the groundbreaking grimoire The Psychic Vampire Codex will be revised, updated and added to in the coming year. Stay tuned here, or at M. Belanger’s website for updates!
