Vampirism and Blood Fetishes

Very often I see topics about fetishes, questions about if vampirism is a blood fetish, or accusations from people primarily outside of the real vampire community that vampires are simply blood fetishists.

The automatic reaction from the community is to deny any connection with the fetish world and vehemently reject any possible connection with vampirism to fetishism, but rarely is the issue considered in much detail.

First, definitions. Probably one of the better definition sets I've seen for the term fetish is as follows:

1. something nonsexual, such as an object or a part of the body which arouses sexual desire or is necessary for one to reach full sexual satisfaction.

2. something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman.

3. an irrational, or abnormal, fixation or preoccupation.
[Source: http://www.allwords.com/word-fetish.html]

Now, societally speaking, definition #1 is the one most commonly (to the point of being almost exclusively) used for the word fetish anymore. Using that definition, there is a huge difference between vampirism and blood fetishism--vampirism is the drinking of blood (or other substance) or absorbing psychic or metaphysical energy/prana/chi with the belief that it is needed to maintain one's physical, psychological, and/or metaphysical well-being. Blood fetishism would be drinking blood for sexual gratification.

However...if we adopt definition #2, the belief that blood or other bodily fluids (or metaphysical energy, even, though fetishes are usually of physical items) contain spiritual or magical powers, then vampirism would very squarely fit into the category of a fetish.

And, of course, using the 3rd definition, most vampires would say they are quite preoccupied or fixated on feeding, and thus it would still qualify as a fetish.

Finally, there comes the bit about community cross-over. While it's often shied away from in the vampire community as a discussion topic, though is fairly well known and realized, a healthy portion of the community crosses over into other communities, including the BDSM/kink communities and fetish communities. As such, there are a number of people in the community who, while perhaps not overly vocally due to the stigma against the term fetish being used in the vampire community, would identify themselves both as real vampires and as blood fetishists. When identifying that way, most are still probably using the first of the definitions, and maintain that there is a difference between their vampirism and their self-described label as a fetishist--namely that they need the blood/energy for vampiric reasons, but they also find gratification in bloodplay.

It's all in the definitions. For the purpose of mainstream society, definition #1 is used, and vampires are not typically fetishists.

Happy Vampire Day

Not really something we typically think of when we use the term vampire, but our friends in Brazil have added a new twist to the application of the vampire archetype and symbol by creating the Day of the Vampire to promote, among other things, desperately needed blood donations for blood banks in Brazil. Culturally speaking, there is a lot of discrimination against the practice of donating blood, as well as gothic lifestyles, etc. The Day of the Vampire helps combat that, and helps save hundreds of lives with their record-breaking donation collections.

It's an interesting idea, and one I'd really like to see take off other places. Given the vampire-happy American population, I can see running vampire-themed drives around the US being extremely successful. Perhaps something for next year...

A more "official" blurb:

13th of August there will be a Vampire Celebration of the Avenida Paulista (those from São Paulo).

The clinical blood drive will start at 10am, at the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP).

Artists, makeup artists, and supporters will be present.

August 13 is Day of the Vampire,in São Paulo and additionally officially celebrated at events in several cities of Brazil and even from abroad.

This day was created by filmmaker, writer and actress Liz Marins (LizVamp).

It's a way that she found to use the fiction of vampires to help our poor reality of blood banks, and encourage attitudes essential for other causes she believed in.

The causes being raised (for) are:

. Incentive to Donate Blood (It's the day when the vampires donate instead of eat)

. Fighting Prejudice and Discrimination

. Encouraging Diversity Art.

People confuse the clothes, the outside of someone with your spirit. The surface is not tattooed the physical nature of a being.

Liz has hosted the original Blood Donation Campaign since 2002, differently and creatively. It often shocks/surprises people, but it has beat the record in voluntary blood donations blood in Latin America.

Each year that passes the campaign gets more fans, artists and several important people, including many icons of the underground scene.



Rough video translation:
You have seen them appear all over, the sexy ones in black. On the 13th of August, the Day of the Vampires, find your local blood donation center. With one donation, you can save various (many) lives. To be a Hero you dont need have a symbol on your chest - Just Donate Blood"

The VVC, Vampire Google, and Community Chats

I realized I haven't updated this blog in far too long. There are a number of reasons for that, most revolving around that I'm incredibly busy and have been focused on other things. Not that that's particularly any sort of decent excuse, but it is what it is. I did, however, want to update some things for anyone who does either stumble on this blog or is oblivious to the rest of the Vampire Community (as a good majority of it is plastered across every corner of the VC, as well as sent as mass tons of spam emails).

First, a little about the VVC. The full name of the group is the Voices of the Vampire Community...which is all nice and flashy, but what's it mean? It means we're a group of people from around the community who've come together to talk about things, try to network, etc. We're not some mass leader group, or any sort of authority group, but we do have a number of the more prominent members of the community (though not all) in our ranks. Because of that, we get noticed, both inside and outside of the community. If you want to learn about the VVC, the link is http://www.veritasvosliberabit.com/vvc.html. Bios and list of members, and a huge links section, etc, can be found there. If nothing else, perhaps consider it as a resource for finding some of the mass tons of more legit sites and people.

Which brings me to my next topic, which is a project I kind of started on a whim and is slowly gaining some popularity and use...a custom-designed Google search engine, specifically for the Vampire Community. Basically, how it works is a long list of sites have been added to the engine, all community and real vampirism sites, plus handy things like thefreedictionary.com and thesaurus.com. The custom engine then searches /only/ those sites for the results it returns. Basically...it's a giant filter system for Google. I tried it just out of curiosity, and found it actually works incredibly well, better than most of the individual sites' search engines. I'm still in the process of adding more sites to it, but the thing is handy, and can be found at http://tiny.cc/vampiregoogle or on a few of the sites around the community.

The other reason I've been less than faithful about updating here is compliments of helping organize and run the new global Vampire Community Discussions. Now if you're fairly new to the community or have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, you my not have heard about them. Otherwise, you know that they're monthly giant scheduled chats, hosted by the VVC, and held via irc on Dalnet, in #vampirevoices. Each chat has a topic that's announced ahead of time (along with the day and time for the chat each month). Transcripts of the previous chats can be found on the VVC site and throughout the community, as can updates as they come out about when the next ones will be. Also, there's also the VVC's Vampire News feed on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vampirenews.

While I know this is fairly atypical as far as my posts go, it gives people things to read and interesting information. Also, I'd love to see anyone reading this blog come to the global discussions.

~Is

Vampire Ethics

From personal stances to more formal written codes, ethics within the vampire community is a fairly common topic and, like so many others, one full of a wide range of opinions and perspectives. Ethics come in many different forms, depending on personal choices and what situations are involved, but everyone involved in the community should follow at least some sort of ethical code with some common basics included.

One of the most important but commonly and sadly overlooked parties involved in the community are the donors. Because of this, donor ethics in particular are not always discussed; so much emphasis is put on the ethics of the vampires, but donors also have ethical responsibilities. First, donors have the responsibility to ensure that they are clean and healthy. This includes being medically clean and free of communicable diseases, infections, or illness that could cause harm to them or to the vampire they are donating to; physically clean and following a proper hygiene routine; and mentally and emotionally healthy . In many ways, common sense is important here; if a donor is sick or extremely stressed, they have the responsibility to tell their vampire that they aren't able to donate until they are healthy and stable again. If the donor is physically donating (either via blood or other means that requires physical contact), it is not an unreasonable request for the donor to be tested for diseases at a local clinic and to show the results of the test to the vampire they are donating to. The donor should also keep in mind that if the same is not offered, it is also a perfectly reasonable request for the vampire to have the same testing if they will be in physical contact with the donor. If a donor finds they're too tired or have been donating too frequently, they need to tell the vampire they're donating to so the relationship can be adjusted so as not to hurt the donor. Similarly, the donor should tell the vampire if there is or will be a change in their life that will impact their ability to donate. The donor has a responsibility to be aware of what is happening and educate themselves as to how the vampire is going to feed, what training they have, and what the possible effects will be on them so they do not agree to something they do not want and do not panic when their vampire does feed on them. One of the main keys is open communication between the donor and vampire.

Ethics for vampires primarily relate to their interaction with a donor. The first ethical responsibility for any vampire is to be honest with themselves and their donor about if they truly are a vampire and truly need to feed; while there is nothing wrong with someone having a blood fetish rather than actually being a vampire, it would be unethical to use the guise of vampirism to find a donor to fill that desire, while the donor believes they are donating to meet a need. The next responsibility for a vampire is to educate themselves. If the vampire is a sang, they need to learn about anatomy and what methods of feeding are or are not safe. Psi vampires have the ethical responsibility to learn to control their feeding, so as not to constantly drain those around them. Also, psi vampires should inform and obtain consent from those they feed directly and significantly on (as opposed to simply wandering through a shopping mall and drawing from the collective energy of the people there). Vampires also have the responsibility to take every possible precaution to prevent harm to their donor or themselves. This includes everything from proper aftercare for the donor after feeding to confirming that both they and their donors are physically and mentally healthy. Vampires must also keep in mind the possible legal ramifications and resolve any ethical concerns they have due to them, which is most often handled by the commonsense requirements that all donors be of legal age and fully consenting. Vampires are responsible for respecting the wishes of their donors. All vampires also have a responsibility to their donor to keep open communication with them about their needs. If a vampire is not feeding enough, it is up to them to discuss it with their donor and come to an agreement about how to rectify the situation. Similarly, the vampire should tell their donor if they are or will be going through something in their life that is likely to change their feeding requirements.

Finally, one of the most important ethical responsibilities for both donors and vampires is mutual respect and lack of abuse or manipulation. One of the most unethical things possible is for a donor to use their being a source of sustenance over their vampire as a means of control or manipulation. Likewise, a vampire should never use their feeding as a threat or take it to an extreme where it becomes no longer consensual for the donor. Both parties [i]always[/i] have the option of ending the arrangement or choosing not to feed or donate. Also, many donors and vampires develop extremely strong bonds and connections ranging from energetic to emotional, and neither party should use those bonds to influence or manipulate the other.

While the finer details of ethics for those within the vampire community often boil down to personal choices and opinions, commonsense, caution, respect, and safety are the keys for most ethical concerns when it comes to vampires and donors.

Ethics Checklist

Vampires:

• Am I actually a vampire and so actually need to feed?
  
  
• Have I educated myself?
  
  
  • Do I know enough about anatomy to not injure my donor?
    
  • Do I know how to control my feeding?
    
  • Do I know how to care for my donor?
    
  
  
• Is my donor of legal age?
  
  
• Is my donor fully aware and consenting of donating?
  
  
• Is what I am doing safe?
  
  
  • Have both my donor and I been tested for diseases or illness?
    
  • Are both my donor and I mentally stable?
    
  
  
• Is the relationship with my donor healthy?
  
  
  • Am I being careful to not manipulate my donor?
    
  • Am I not allowing my donor to manipulate me?
    
  
  
• Am I communicating what I need with my donor?
  
  
• Am I being mindful of my donors needs and wishes?
  
  
  Donors:
  
  
• Is what I am doing safe?
  
  
  • Have both my vampire and I been tested for diseases or illness?
    
  • Are both my vampire and I mentally stable?
    
  • Has my vampire educated themselves?
    
  
  
• Is the relationship with my vampire healthy?
  
  
  • Am I being careful to not manipulate my vampire?
    
  • Am I not allowing my vampire to manipulate me?
    
  
  
• Have I educated myself about what my vampire needs?
  
  
  • Do I know how my vampire is going to feed?
    
  • Do I know what the effects of donating are?
    
  
  
• Am I communicating what I need and want with my vampire?

Shielding Around Vampires

One key thing that I think often gets skimmed over and forgotten when people are dealing with shielding around vampires, and specifically large number of vampires who may or may not be in very good control of their draw on others' energy (the latter being extremely common in fairly newly awakened psi vampires), is that the presence of a shield doesn't stop a psi from being able to feed--it's simply redirects what or where the psi is feeding on and from. Almost all shield techniques put out to newbies involves something along the line of envisioning a ball of light and spreading it out to cover them, or a box or bubble of light/energy around them, etc. 

The key point is that those shields, and all shields, are still energy. Which means that while the psi might have difficulty accessing the person directly, they can now simply feed off of the shield. Unfortunately, in most "beginner" techniques, no one mentions where the energy is to come from to make the box/bubble/energy ball, so a very good majority of people tend to take the energy to generate and maintain their shields from themselves. Obviously, this means that instead of the vampire snacking on them by drawing from them directly, they're now being drawn on via proxy, as the vampire draws on the shield and they have to put more of their energy into the shield to counteract it.

So the solution? There can be many, some nicer than others. One I'm fond of for newbies and beginners, that is fairly simple, is to have them set up the shield to draw from the ambient energy around them. There are a few obvious drawbacks to this, namely that if the ambient energy is lower somewhere, the shields will tend to be weaker. However, it's simple and easy for most people to do. Also, it means any psi coming around to munch is going to get what they want and move on, without any real effect on the person who is shielded.

Other...less friendly, and more complex, methods would be things like shielding using a feedback system when someone draws on the shield, they get some sort of undesirable element with it, be it a high-pitched frequency, barbed energy, etc. Drawbacks here are that it typically takes more energy to sustain that type of shield and that not all people will be bothered by it, as a number of people tend to "filter" whatever is drawn in. Another option is to set up a multi-layered shield system that is a series of one-way walls, with the outer layer only allowing energy in and the inner only allowing energy out. That way anyone attempting to feed off of the shield will have a much more difficult time. Some might still manage, but there is usually easier food to be found, since the effect is like trying to feed against a vacuum.

What is a vampire?

Someone asked me a few days ago a fairly common newbie question of “what do you think a vampire is?”. It made me think about what my answer is, beyond the cookie-cutter answer of that a vampire is a person who needs a supplement of some form, be it physical blood or metaphysical energy.

“Vampire” is a seven-letter word that has been assigned to and associated with so many things and has so many varied definitions, depending on who you are asking, that I think it now borders on being utterly meaningless as a description, because there is no one set definition.

There are first, of course, the vampires of Hollywood and folklore. Even this, however, isn't clearcut...is one talking about a vampire like Dracula, truly a zombie-like undead? Or are they talking about the romantic versions of the word embodied by the likes of Anne Rice's Lestat and Louis? Or do they mean those teenage, sparkly beings out of the currently popular Twilight series? Or, in a less dramatic sense, are they referencing those out history with much more mundane explanations, like people buried alive, then exhumed only for people to find that they'd clawed at the insides of their coffins? Even within the world of fiction and lore, the term “vampire” can refer to far too many things.

Beyond the vampires of fiction and lore, there are the medical and pseudomedical and pseudoscientific types of vampirism, such as the thoughts populated of porphyria and the V5 virus, and the vampirism of animals or insects who are termed such only because their diet is purely of blood (such as the vampire bat or mosquito). 

Next, there are those who consider themselves vampires by their choosing to follow a vampiric lifestyle. This tends to split into two categories; those who actively drink blood or draw metaphysical energy from others and, as such, are vampiric, and those who follow a more neogothic lifestyle, complete with capes, fangs, sleeping in coffins, and wearing white makeup and entirely black clothing. To further confuse matters, some of these “vampires”, often referred to as lifestylers by themselves and others, may also be vampires of other definitions of the word, as well, and simply also choose to live a vampiric lifestyle on top of it.

Finally, enter the modern, Western metaphysical sense of the word, and the current vampire community. Even within the community, we cannot seem to agree on a set definition for the term. There is the ever-present argument of energy vs. physical needs, the mostly recognized splits of “types” of vampires, ranging from sangs to psis to tantric to elemental, and branching down into any number of subtypes. Add further the difference and distinction of those who are vampires vs those who are simply vampiric, but are also often labeled as vampires. Also, some within the vampire community will recognize those who are basically temporarily vampires, for any number of reasons ranging from damaged energy systems to being overfed on by another vampire (sympathetic vampirism), as falling under the term of vampires.

My definition of what a vampire is falls into the last category, referring to the more modern, metaphysical line of thinking. I would say that a vampire is 
1.Someone who requires an additional supplement, gained either through physical consumption of certain things (such as blood) or via the direct absorption of metaphysical energy, to be able to maintain the balance of their system, 
2.Such need for supplementation to their system is longterm and constant,
3.Not caused by addiction, fetish, temporary injury or illness (physical or to their energy system), or influence from an outside source.
I cannot stress enough that the key point to my definition is that there be an actual need for energy that is not caused by extenuating circumstances (addiction, illness, etc); all instances of someone feeding due to extenuating circumstances I firmly class as being vampiric, but do not recognize the person as a vampire.

Ultimately, though, I think what it comes down to is that given the myriad assortment of definitions assigned to the word “vampire”, common ground of definitions must be established most any time the term is to be used or there simply will always be conflict and confusion rooted simply in misunderstandings. 

So, what do I think a vampire is? I think it's a person being described by a seven letter word that means absolutely nothing without more information being given.

Vampires in the Media

In response to this, I made this video about real vampires in the media: