I was going to write about the drama going on in the GVC, again–but, after reading the intro to Julia DarkRose’s upcoming book and a very thought-provoking post by Seth Ananda….I felt inspired to focus on more spiritual topics.

The concept of The Vampire is not necessarily linked with that of any form of spirituality.  There are those popular, media and mythology associations which depict the vampire simply as a feeder–of blood and/or energy. If there are any paranormal qualities expressed by the vampire,  they are inherent and inborn, as soon as the vampire is turned. In urban legend and stories, the Vampire is a metaphysical creature and has no need to exercise, develop or gain its abilities.

In The GVC, some of us might hold the above perception to a more reasonable degree. Whether or not the vampire is a naturally metaphysical being, we hold an entire spectrum of ideas about spirituality as it might relate to modern vampirism.

I don’t pretend that I am any sort of expert. I am not any spiritual master, nor ancient vampire who holds the wisdom of the ages. Just like many other people,  I talk about my personal experience, which I observe and analyze, using my perception and preconceptions.

When I think of spirituality, I refer to the working definitions I’ve come to after years of my personal, evolving understanding of  my metaphysical studies.

We sometimes define spirituality as an intuitive or instinctive process of recognizing spiritual activity through our inner knowing. While I do not personally discount the possibility of this aspect–I can’t validate it in an objective way, so I’ll leave discussion of that to a minimum, while I discuss other angles.

Personally, I can think of my earliest conscious concepts of spirituality as a purely mental process–a thoughtform that we individually construct–or as an intellectual translation of the intuitive sense of spiritual realities.  In my understanding, we can correspond either one easily to the other.

My earliest conscious conception of spirituality was tied in to my earliest teachings of religion. I was raised Catholic, with stories of saints, angels, virgin births and beings come back from the dead. The stories of magick included miracles, God/Jesus/angels/saints personally fulfilling human requests, intercession, spontaneous or long-term healing….all that was supposedly still possible in modern times if I followed orders, behaved correctly and kept petitioning (asking, begging, negotiating). I might not get what I asked for, but this was the proper and ONLY procedure–the ONLY route to take.

Spirituality, magick, physical manifestation and emotional satisfaction were all tied into each other. Physical wealth and worldly happiness were dependent on God granting or withholding them. “Spirituality” involved following rules that were impossible to completely follow, with possible intermittent rewards and, most likely, a lot of punishment for not being able to follow all the rules perfectly, the first time.

Here’s where my plot eventually got twisted as a child–I found some of my father’s books that he might have forgotten about. There was some Carlos Castaneda and a few books on East Indian spirituality. I don’t remember the exact timeline, but it was around the same time that I also discovered some of my godfather’s new age books.

My ideas on God and the construction of the universe began to change.  As the years went by, and I was exposed to various ideas, my viewpoint opened up to a lot of other possibilities.  I’ve all but thrown out the conviction that my childhood model of religion (Catholicism) was the absolute authority.  My concept of Spirituality has changed and become more refined.

When I think of how spirituality works, I  start my conception from the Top-down.

My concept of absolute reality is that the spiritual reality of it is that I am completely one with the Substance of Spirit. There is actually no distinction between my “self” and the ultimate being known as The Creator. At the highest level, there never was any actual separation.

How I understand individualization (or manifestation in human form) is that we purposely chose to believe in our personal limitations, at a deep mental and emotional level–that is, we consciously chose to ignore aspects of our true identity in order to manifest as human in the physical world.  Instead of conscious being as Unlimited Love (without object or subject), we chose to believe that we could only love other specific beings when specific criteria are met for specific “types” of “love,” depending on personal relationship to those specific objects of our “love.”  Love from the Divine perspective is very, very different from what we call “love” in human relationships.

Within the model of multiple layers/levels of reality, where there are energy bodies which are our vehicles for expression on the varying vibratory levels (dimensions or planes)–everything below the level of Oneness is necessarily based on the illusion of not being conscious of our being Oneness.  Therefore, we can define “spirituality” as simply the conscious awareness of that Oneness.

Since everything below that level of Oneness (Spirituality) is based on the illusion of not believing in that Oneness, we are dealing with the illusions of fragmentation, separation and duality.  Exploring black and white, good and evil, negative and positive for the purposes of reuniting (balancing) them is reaffirming that there IS fragmentation and separation, which are not qualities of Oneness to begin with–and are simply putting more power into the conviction of the reality of the illusion.

No judgement at all on the goodness or badness of anything, here.  I simply want to make the distinction between Magick and Spirituality.  Magick is movement of the perceptions and convictions of independent reality of everything below the level of Oneness.  Spirituality is simply the awareness of that Oneness.  Magick can calm the emotional waters, which distract us from realization of Oneness.  Magick can calm the reactions and conditions which distract us from Oneness, because we have emotional and mental investments in being obsessed or concerned with the physical world and personal, interior worlds.

Magick can be a vehicle towards spirituality, IF used to change perception about absolute self-identity as Spirit.  Magick can be a deterrent to spirituality, if used in any other way to reinforce obsession with physical, mental or emotional realities in ways which do not make spiritual awakening easier.

Where am I at in terms of Vampirism and how it relates to Spirituality?  If we think of Energy Vampirism in basic terms of feeding and energy nourishment, once I feel satisfied and emotionally calm after feeding, I can refocus on Spirit and its emanations, such as Peace and Love.  I am not as distracted by hunger on energetic or emotional levels.  This is how it relates to those who define Vampirism on the basic level.

There are those of us who define being Vampires in more spiritual terms, beyond just feeding.  Some of us feel that what SOME of us are can be defined as a more spiritually-oriented creature that is distinctly different in our makeup and drive than the feeding-only creature that also takes the label of “vampire.”  In this case, it might not be only (or at all) the same process/need that the sustenance-only vampiric creature identifies with.  One interpretation for the Vampire-AS-SPIRITUAL-CREATURE is that they take in the energy/blood to use as fuel for spiritual evolution.  This reminds me of other spiritual traditions where personal sexual energy is taken from the lower chakras and cycled up to the higher chakras, especially the crown, for spiritual awakening.

[As I’ve brought up before, my stance is that the GVC includes both types of feed-only and spiritually-oriented psychic identities who both gravitate to the Subculture.  Not that there is one “true” type of Vampire, exactly….but, that we have varying types of energetic humans who come to the GVC, under the umbrella term of Modern Vampires.]

In the case of the Vampire who is a sort of spiritually-oriented being, I would have to say that I resonate somewhat with that concept.  Just because an energy worker can work with healing energy that corresponds to the etheric body, which affects the physical body–there is no guarantee that they are experiencing Oneness.  Even the higher Love feelings that one experiences from doing a healing might be dependent on the idea that one is being helpful in a personal way.  While this positive concept can eventually LEAD TO a spiritual experience of Oneness, helping another person heal might be tinted with the ideas that the healer was an important factor to the healing (personal ego involved); there might be some sort of compensation for the effort (expecting the healed individual or the universe to give something back, based on personal action); or that somehow energy is limited or lacking….and therefore not omnipresent and in abundance.

Working with non-physical dimension energies is Magick, up until we come to the Spirituality-level awareness of Oneness.  When used with focus, Vampirism can lead to spirituality,  but is not necessarily spiritual in itself.   Lower level energies are based on limitation, not Oneness.