|
Casidhe Trinity wrote:
The thought that vampyres NEED to feed.The Word NEED for that matter..
I still think Choice or Desire would be better terms because I think
that word truly works against us as a whole because frankly it doesn't
really make us stand out from non vampires or kin for that matter.
I've said elsewhere that I think it is far more useful to emphasize the
physical effect that blood has, which could be quantified and measured
given people willing to submit to testing. Blood has been ingested for
nutritional, medical and ritual purposes since the beginning of humanity,
but for true vampires, it has a unique effect. Vamps certainly crave it,
but the whole "need" issue has been developed, and then made
into rigid dogma, very recently. In this regard, the Sangs bear as much
blame for the so-called "psi-sang wars" as the psis do.
Casidhe Trinity wrote:
The other word that disturbs me is Vampyre it's self now before I go
any further with my explination on this I simply want to say that there
are those in the community due to their own ancestory do fit the term
to a T but besides those few cases I wish the damnable word could be
dropped all together.
Let me explain how I came to identify with the word. I actually cover
this in a couple of articles on my website, but this is the quick precis.
I did not start out by attempting to solve the dilemma of my own personal
identity or situation. I have been deeply absorbed with all kinds of paranormal
phenomena since I was in my early teens. Vampire legend and lore happened
to be number one on that list, but what I was doing, right from the start,
was trying to look past categories, assumptions, context, "debunking"
(i.e. speculative "rational explanations" for things), and second-hand
retellings and get to the meat of the actual phenomena. Then I tried to
see how the phenomena might relate to each other, and how categories of
paranormal phenomena all seemed to have core similarities. What I wanted
to do was get to what might be the actual reality at base of the phenomena,
by thinking about it in a completely original way.
I was especially interested in applying this to vampire lore, and I soon
realized that vampire folklore has more pure bullshit accrued around it--by
academics as well as popularists--than most other topics. Some of that
is now being recognized and corrected by other serious researchers besides
me, I'm very glad to say! But as I puzzled more and more over what appeared
to be the reality behind vampire folklore (and phenomena that was very
obviously related to it), and the dilemma of my own nature, which was
an entirely separate issue, a light bulb started to go on. "Hey...all
of this information I'm putting together applies to me--perfectly. Oh-oh..."
I "awakened" when I was 14, but it took me about fifteen more
years to actually believe it. I was resistant, not eager, to accept the
full reality, and when I did accept it, my whole life changed. Suddenly
I was relating to other people and the world much more successfully--even
though these people and the world didn't have a clue about me being a
vampire. Suddenly a lot of my inner conflicts just dissolved. That's how
you know that you've finally come to terms with the truth about yourself--when
you experience that kind of inner reconciliation. I didn't jump on any
bandwagons!
I am an expert (no point in false modesty) in vampire folklore, fiction,
media and fact, and I'm very hard-headed about finding the truth behind
the paranormal. In fact, I think I shocked people who took my Psychic
Development classes by just how hard-headed I was, and expected them to
be. I'm just as hard-headed about magick, the history of Witchcraft/Wicca/modern
Paganism, and vampires.
But what I've found to be true in the VC, ever since I first connected
with it in the late 90s, is that people come here looking for validation
of their own sense that they're "different," and attach themselves
to the "vampire" identity because of its attractive cultural
components (not because it "fits the symptoms"). They then redefine
"vampire" to mean, basically, "what I am." Anyone
who isn't exactly like them "isn't a real vampire."
People in the VC tend to refuse to make any honest study of vampire folklore,
because "that has nothing to do with us," although there is
a distressing tendency to run off on absurd tangents based on erroneous
notions of "a universal vampire belief" that were invented by
folklorists in the early 20th century and have now been corrected. People
in the VC are even more hostile to any idea that vampire fiction or films
has anything to do with their self-identity, when in fact, they have everything
to do with it, because that's where everybody's notion of what a "vampire"
is comes from!
When I did get into the VC, I collected all the anecdotal information
and arguments that everybody was making, in the same spirit that I collected
all my other data. Because I had such a huge body of information to compare
with the experiences people in the VC reported, I came to somewhat different
conclusions about what was going on with many of the people here. But
what people in the VC want is to be accepted unconditionally on their
own terms without compromising. So, my insights have not been of much
interest to anyone.
There is nothing the least bit radical about the VC "redefining
vampirism." It's been doing that since it formed. What would be radical
would be the VC honestly examining vampirism as a historical and cultural
phenomenon and then figuring out how people here fit into that--if at
all.
Casidhe Trinity wrote:
The other reason I don't like the term is because people use it to exclude
others from being involved they look down the list of criteria and it
feels if one variant isn't met then omg you can't be what you say you
are!!!
I agree, Cas, this is one of the VC's biggest problems.
Casidhe Trinity wrote:
People have gotten comfortable in the victim role and the thought of
having to give it up terrifies them they don't want to be redefined!
And that's one of the other ones. A third major problem is that the VC
always seems to be plagued with one or two individuals who apparently
don't have a life, and aggressively spread misinformation in every related
forum and venue they can access. I've simply decided that people will
believe what makes sense to them, and the only Truth worth knowing is
the Truth that people freely acknowledge, without persuasion or coercion.
All you can do is keep putting it out there.
~ Vyrdolak, 2008
This article is presented as part of an ongoing
effort to present other views outside of, as well as within, the online
vampire community. As such, the views and attitudes contained in this
article are entirely those of the author(s), and may not necessarily
be shared by SphynxCatVP. The webmaster is not under obligation to update
or otherwise keep current the contents of this article. Most
importantly, only you can decide for yourself whether this article or
any of the author(s) other views are useful or applicable to you - use
your own reasoning and judgment.
| 
