Vampires and Religion: Are they Damned?

I have been thinking about this sort of essay for a while now and I have been doing some thinking and reading about it and while I don't have any answers for my questions, I think the fact Vampire is actually a metaphor for us, the human condition, I thought I would put down my observations and meanderings. So much of what we write about Vampires have some level of spiritual thought and this may be by virtue of their being supernatural and the legend of the Vampire and how they came to be.

What I have attempted to do in writing this essay is try to keep religion as a neutral thing and not lean too heavily on any one religious group or creed. What I have done is separated religion into Western religion and that includes Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as well Pagan religions and Eastern religion, which would include Buddhism and Hinduism and the other contemplative religions of the far east. Technically, Christianity and Judaism and Islam are eastern religions by the fact they come from the Middle East, but for the purposes of this essay, I have called these religions Western. I have also tried to use neutral terms for God as not everyone sees the Creator the same way and I use terms like heaven and hell as simply common terms, not meant to be associated with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic notions of these places.

So, like I do with all my essays, I begin simply by asking myself questions. The "What if" questions are the basis of all thought and writing and even the formation of religions. Asking why or what or who or where and how leads us to ask the age old questions of Who are we? Where do we come from? How did we get here? What does it all mean? And Where do we go when our bodies die? Had we never asked these questions and sought the answers we would be devoid of religion and philosophical thought. As to my applying these questions to the mythology of Vampires and asking these questions about them, perhaps what I am really doing is asking the question about us, the human race in general, and myself. We all feel at one time or another very separate from our fellow man and this separateness is what is unique in the supernatural world.

Before we explore the souls of Vampires and their place in the world of imagination and what they really mean to us, I suppose I must begin this essay by defining religion and what is the ultimate goal of religion. Then I shall explore how these concepts can or cannot be applied to Vampires of lore and our story, True Blood, and then I will go into the notion of final "salvation" and the belief in the soul and that might work with Vampires and then I will discuss the notion of Vampire religion.

So what is religion? What is it meant to do? Is there one true religion above all religions and who gets to go to "heaven"? Who are the chosen people?

Asking these questions are the foundations of not only religion but of personal faith. We ask ourselves these questions and then explore what this means to us. Sometimes these questionings lead us to believe in something, sometimes it doesn't. Just as many people are turned off by the notion of religion as are turned on. If you are a believer then your own personal questions and the answers you come up with come together and give you a picture of not only the afterlife but the Creator. All cultures have some sort of religious or spiritual facet to their lives and they try to answer the questions the society has about life (Why is life difficult? How did we come to be? Who made me?) Death (Why do people die? Is death a punishment?) and the Afterlife (Where do we go? What happens to our soul when the body dies? If there is a place of reward, is there a place of punishment and who gets to go?).

The apparent goal of religion is twofold. The first goal is to forge a closer, more intimate relationship with the Creator and getting to know them. The second goal is to eventually be admitted into the afterlife. What lies between and makes up the different facets of religious faith is how do we get to the good place and how do we avoid the bad place. The basic rules are a system of checks and balances, codes of conduct and limits on behavior. Assurance of reward comes from "confessions of faith" or moments of enlightenment. This may come from the following and systematic fulfillment of rites and rituals and sacraments meant to help us incrementally form more complex and closer relationships with the Creator. Others believe in study, contemplation and meditation to bring us into the embrace of the divine. Some believe a combination of the two is what is required to harmonize both faith and logic.

In the best case scenario, we invest our spiritual lives in ritual and study with a true heart and a desire to forge our intimate relationships with the Creator. In truth, there are many who go through the motions of rite and ritual because it is as much a part of cultural identity as a spiritual zeal. It may also be a way of simply satisfying the desire or dictate of family or culture or even government. For example, if we think Ireland, we think Catholic. Truth is, there are many Protestant churches in Ireland and the fastest growing religion in Ireland is Buddhism. Paying lip service to both "Church and State" for the sake of conformity and avoid persecution, either from the family unit or culture or government is a forgery for true faith but the sad truth of the matter is it does happen. To have complete control of a person or society, down to the state of one's soul and the rewards of the afterlife is considerable power and remarkably easy to abuse. To say "vote this way" or "support this political leader" or your soul is damned is the real politik is the first and most damaging and dangerous form of control one might exert.

Now, imagine you are Vampire.

Regardless of how you were made, either with or without your approval, you have thwarted the basic tenets of any religious faith. We are taught through our religious training the human body is mortal and will eventually die and disappear into nature but your immortal soul will move on in the next plane of existence. For the Vampire, the body is dead but it does not decay. It is held in stasis, still animated. Their souls do not do not cross over to the afterworld but resides in the dead body. This thwarts the grand design that our souls are meant to appear before the Creator and face final judgement to be deemed either worthy of heaven or damned to hell. But does this circumstance actually make you damned?

Let's look for a moment at Eastern religion. Most, though not all, Eastern religions believe in some form of reincarnation. If you managed to go through your life and you led an exemplary life you get to join the Creator and become one with them. If your life was less than exemplary, you get a celestial do over and you are reborn and you must relearn the lessons you didn't learn before.

As I noted in my essay in the Mythology thread about human Vampyres, they believe in reincarnation
( https://truebloodanonymous.forumotion.com/t9p200-mythology-of-true-blood-and-the-sookie-books#1631 ) and is through reincarnation the Vampyre gets their immortality. They believe that though they do die, their soul comes back has total recall of their past lives. In Eastern religions, you don't necessarily have total recall of the past life. If you are in a state of suffering then you are to pay attention and learn what the suffering is meant to teach you so you gain enlightenment. In short, if you are in pain, pay attention, God is tryin' to tell you somethin'.

So with this in mind, could being the Vampire of mythology a sort of physical expression of reincarnation. After all, in eastern thought we have reincarnation going from one rebirth to another, could this not be the same for the legendary Vampire, who must change to walk among us, to conform to certain extent to the changes wrought on the human world? Wouldn’t a Vampire like Eric look silly if he still dressed or spoke or behaved like the primitive person he was before he was Vampire? So the evolutionary process does exist for the Vampire, and therefore could he not be undergoing some level of reincarnation.

But what of God? Do they believe in God?

I suppose being immortal, or at the very least hard to kill, you might still believe in a Creator. After all Vampires had to come to come from somewhere and if they come from us, or were us originally, they would remember something about Creator, even if they are skeptical of their presence in their lives. In all the mythologies we read about Vampires, they are afraid of the True Death, or at least they do avoid it til they get to decide when they end. Being that they decide when they end, unless they themselves are killed, I suppose they would feel they would have no need of God. They may have decided in their own hearts they have nothing more to say to God, and because they have nothing more to say, they believe God has stopped having things to say to them. Perhaps the closest thing we can truly call them is agnostic. They acknowledge there may be God, but God is beyond them and they are beyond God.

When a Vampire dies, where does his soul go?

If we believe the Vampire is some sort of super concentrated ghost, as Madame Blavatsky states or as Edgar Cayce states, then they still have a soul, but its attachment to the physical self is different from our own, then we can state categorically the Vampire has a soul. Since the Vampire’s soul is no different than ours metaphysically, then we can have expectations the soul will undergo the same tests ours will when we die to enter the afterlife.

So who gets to go to the afterlife and are Vampires lost forever?

It is difficult to judge. We as humans are never supposed to judge, regardless of our creed. The Creator is the only one who may judge and how that is accomplished is different for every creed. But to simplify this discussion, I have taken the basic rules of any faith system, Christian or non and I have distilled them into a general code of conduct. As I said in the beginning of this essay, I am trying to avoid leaning one way or the other on any faith system, and these are general rules. Each creed has more detailed Spiritual Constitutions with amendments which discusses in detail the complex facets of life.

The Code of Conduct
Honor the creator
Honor the Earth
Do not kill
Do not steal
Do not lie
Respect your parents
Respect the sanctity of marriage
Respect your fellow man

If we look at the world created for us by True Blood and the Charlaine Harris novels, and we look at Vampire mythos, we could just about say, in snap judgement, all of our Vampires and the Vampires of mythology break these rules and they would therefore be lost to the afterlife. But if we look a little closer, we might have to wonder.

Honor the Creator- A Vampire has two creators: The Creator which made all mankind, and the creator of their Vampire life. Then they have their Maker and this ties into the respect your parents thing as well.

Honor the earth- I think Vampires do honor the earth. In some mythologies, a Vampire must lie in his home ground to rest during the day. This is where the Vampire gains his strength, this and blood.

Do not kill- This is tough for Vampires, but even humans say…Do not kill unless…We often read the paper and watch the news and say, “There is a person who could use being killing,” we do it all the time when we watch serial killers and child rapists and that sort of ilk. Vampires in True Blood and CH’s books do kill accidentally and on purpose, but usually for altruistic reasons: Eric killed the werewolf in Sookie’s house, he killed the red neck who burned the house with Liam, Malcolm and Diane in it, he kills to protect and to punish evil doers. So does Bill, he killed the Rattrays, he killed Uncle Bartlett, he killed witches. Godric in the book and the show killed Gabe when he was about to rape Sookie. So they seem to kill a certain type of human…a bad human or a human who has hurt them.

Do not steal- This too is hard for Vampires. We are told Vampires steal from the dead. For example, Bill made a gift to Lorena of a piece of jewelry he took off a victim. I have never seen him do it, but I am sure Eric steals or has stolen to survive. Some would say making Jessica stole her human life and forced her to be Vampire, which would go both in the stealing and do not kill categories. They do respect the Mine Law, which would keep one Vampire from claiming another Vampire’s human companion. To violate that law, you would be stealing. Pam stole from the Vampire under the spell of Marnie. Russell stole from Eric when he killed his parents and took his father’s crown. Eric stole when he seduced and killed Talbot and stole the crown back. But, if your family was starving or if you were in some dire straight, you might steal as well to survive. You might repent or even rationalize it for some altruistic reason, but you would do those things.

Do not lie- That one is tricky. Eric does not really lie to Sookie. He omits, which to some is tantamount to lying (I know, I sound like Amy Burley) but he never strings words together he knows is a lie. Bill on the other hand lies like a rug, but he has altruistic reasons for that. So is what he does somehow worse than what Eric does, or both equally reprehensible? (Both are reprehensible to me) Because they both do what they do for altruistic reasons, maybe they don’t feel so guilty if they reach their goal, which is they are trying to protect someone they love. I would actually call what they do for Sookie’s benefit high handed, and they are both high handed. But we are all given to lying a little, the little white lie to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, the lie to cover some misstep, we have all done it…So it is all normal, something we all do out of fear or protection or some other reason.


Respect your parents- Vampires may not have living human parents, or be beyond their influence once they become Vampire, but the Maker/Child relationship is one of those honored ties. In the book, Russell says Bill was Lorena’s and he could not really get involved with their troubles. Bill is Jessica’s maker and Sookie going against him and undermining his authority was not simply dangerous, it was rude and sneaking of her to do, even if her reasons were pure. Eric and Godric (show) and Eric and Ocella (books) are tied by the bond of Maker and Child and he must do as his maker tells him. So in that, you can say, Vampires do respect their parents.

Respect the sanctity of marriage- Well, I would say that if you are Vampire you have probably seduced whoever was handy and their marital status was of little importance to you. But even in the Vampire world, they do have limits. When Eric and Sookie forge the bond and Eric marries her under Vampire custom, the King of Nevada has to respect their union. Vampires also have to follow the Mine Law, which if not a marriage a domestic arrangement of some sort and therefore sacrosanct.

Respect your fellow man- Vampires may not be human and may have very little regard for humans, they do respect their fellow Vampires, even if they don’t really like them. Bill was mad and hurt even when Liam, Malcom and Diane were killed in the book. He took out his grief and anger on Sookie when she told him about it in the grave yard. Eric admired Sophie Anne in the book, and regretted her loss, and he regretted the death of his maker, who he both loved and feared. Bill and Eric will never be MyFace friends but Bill does respect Eric to a degree as his sheriff and his elder. And in the show, the same can be said in reverse, that Eric does respect Bill as his king (for the time being) even though he is older.

To end my essay, I have not come up with any answers, but I have tried to look at what life might be like if there were Vampires. How would they change our human perceptions of religion? Would we give up on religion and make arrangements to become Vampire at our peak of health and attractiveness? Would we become ultrareligious and cling to the notion Vampires are evil and join churches like the Fellowship of the Sun? Or would we marvel that there really are creatures who are fundamentally us and have such insight we could learn from and even expand not only our social lives but our spiritual lives? I would like to think we would be open to the experience. Imagine what we could learn and how it would change us.

This is a very good article dearest, and it really does beg the question of what we would do if some supernatural creature made themselves known to us....

Fascinating essay Aslinn.

I think the answer would tend to lend itself a bit differently. I do think of vampires as a sort of reincarnation. As far as judgement goes tho, I think there would have to be its own standard of judgement. I mean, Ive never heard of God condeming all carnivore animals to hell because they kill. That leads me to suspect that God would peer into their soul and look at their actions and deeds during both lives and see what they have learned, if anything, and what their overall intentions were. Basically it still comes down to, are you good, or are you evil?

I just cant imagine that even being vampire allows one to escape such judgement on that day. Regardless of if it is St Peter looking thru his book, or their hearts being weighed against a feather, it would still happen I think. Of course I cant prove that, but nor can I disprove it. It just seems to be a matter of logic because thats really all one has in the absence of any proof or evidence.

Very well written and intrigueing to say the least.



**Eric and Bill would approve I think**

I just finished reading a book called Vampires: The Occult Truth by Konstantinos, a dark practitioner of the craft. (Dark as in Nocturnal and not in character) and while the book was a bit under organized and he did not have really any new conclusions about Vampires, he did write something that I thought was really interesting. I thought about writing a whole new essay, but then I decided to add to this one, because it goes along with the same vein of thought.

Konstantinos admits there are people who believe they are Vampyre and they live a Vampyric life. He is not sure how that happens or why or how they live their lifestyle, but he makes an interesting observation about one of the claims of people who live Vampyre that they are somehow more than physical and more than metaphysical than ordinary humans.

He does speak about the theory of reincarnation and concludes it is possible and probable the Vampyres are reincarnated, giving one the impression they are long lived and may even be immortal. But then, Konstantinos adds a twist and be patient as I put this to together.

If you will take some time and read this post about sleep and death and the astral self. https://truebloodanonymous.forumotion.com/t9-mythology-of-true-blood-and-the-sookie-books#184 Konstaninos says the Vampire is made of three things: The body, the astral self and the soul. When the body dies, the astral self still clings to the earthly plane til it runs out of energy and the soul is released, in what he calls the second death, to go on to the next plane of existence. Where the Vampire comes in is when the astral self refuses to die and feeds off the ambient energies of the living to maintain their astral self and stay in this plane existence. Their soul does not move on to the next place. He says there is no true corporeal Vampire, that is Vampire in the flesh, that the stories of Vampire rising from the dead are the impressions the Vampire's victims have when they are visited by the astral self. If they did not feed from our energies, the astral self would die.

But Michelle Bellanger, professed Vampyre and writer of the Vampire Codex, disagrees. In an essay she wrote in response to Konstantinos' book. She observes Konstantinos gathers much of his thought on this from Dion Fortune, an occultist, who wrote a book called Psychic Self-Defense and in it she wrote a chapter on Astral Vampirism. Her take on the Vampire was that this was the work of a dark witch who did not want to go on to the next plane of existence but wanted to stay in this world to continue their lives. She remarks this is the act of an evil magikal worker who is selfish and become ravening evil entities, a succubi or inccubi, who will victimize others to remain in the world.

In many ways Konstantinos agrees with Fortune. He believes this thwarting of the natural balance of the cycle of birth, life and death is evil in and of itself and makes the Vampire a selfish, uncaring creature who steals from others.

Bellanger of course disagrees. She states:

I agree that astral vampires exist, but they're not universally evil, and I don't necessarily think all of them came about through the kind of black magick Fortune implies. But it's important, when reading Konstantionos' book, to see it in context with Fortune's own beliefs, as he lifted quite a bit of material directly from her.

To be perfectly honest, I don't really like Konstantinos' work. He presents a very negative view of us, and that view is often misleading. When he wrote that book, he had an agenda: tell the word about the evil of psychic predators (re: vampires) and give advice on how to protect against them. Clearly, the book wasn't written for our community -- it's geared more toward the people who believe that we're out there but who feel all we do is attack and prey upon unwilling victims in a negative and devastating way.


She then goes on to say:

My personal take on astral vampires is that they are just like living vampires -- but without a body. Since I believe that vampirism is a condition of the soul that is carried from incarnation to incarnation, it follows that when between incarnations, the soul is still vampiric. I do not think that the connection to life energy is limited to the physical body. Actually, quite contrarily, I don't think the connection is located in the physical body at all but actually is subtle in nature and thus is located on the subtle body / soul.

Finally, I don't think that the subtle body degrades at death -- what Fortune describes sounds almost like the astral shell decomposes, and I've never experienced anything like this at all. It's simply that the connection between the physical body and the subtle body is broken at death, and the subtle body is freed from its attachment to the physical form.


And then she wrote in another article about Vampires and Dream Walking. Dream walking is similar to what Edgar Cayce believed about the human soul, that though the body is at rest, the soul has its own life beyond its waking life and goes out, attached to the body by a cord to the solar plexus, the middle of the chest, and when the body wakes, the soul is pulled back into body.

Many cultures with shamanic religions believe one can do this in a state of meditation and this activity can help you sort out problems, find personal enlightenment and talk to the gods. Michelle Bellanger prescribes to the notion of the Dreamwalking Vampyre. She writes:

When I dreamwalked to someone, I did not feel like I was astrally projecting, but what was it like on their end of things? We've already seen that, at least under certain circumstances, dreamwalking can elide into something very close to astral projection. It doesn't seem to happen each and every time, but especially if the target is awake, the dreamwalker's presence may manifest outside of the realm of dreams. What if there is a kind of presence that can be sensed even when the dreamwalker is only in contact with the target internally? What happens when the target wakes up, but the dreamwalker is still there? What does that person feel -- or see?



In her book, Vampires: In Their Own Voices, Bellanger says she was an ethically challenged Vampyre in her youth because she had no understanding of who and what she was and she was trying to even deny her true self. She used the dreamwalking to absorb pranic energy, or chi, and she had a freind to work her house and her bedroom to lock her wandering dreamwalking spirit in her house. She observes:

I had my best friend ward my room to keep me inside. He used the same kinds of wards that he would have used against any other spirit. Normally, one sets up such wards in a room to keep unwanted spirits from getting in. All Jason did was switch things around a bit so unwanted spirits couldn't get out.

So, I suppose the debate continues.....

Sources: http://www.sanguinarius.org/articles/MB_astral_vampires.shtml

3 very fascinating topics tied together in a way I would not have imagined. Talk about something to set your imagination on fire!