This is a very controversial subject within the Greater Vampyre community because no one can come to an agreement on whether Vampyres are Born or Made. We’ll get into that shortly, but first I’ll share Goddess Rosemary’s description of this from the “Book of Secrets.” Although Joseph Laycock’s book “Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism” does a great job exploring these ideas in greater detail.
LATENT VAMPYRE’S:
Those who awaken after puberty. These Vampyres are born with a predisposition and potential to become Tru-Livinging-Vampyres, but the condition lies dorment or “Latent” until later in life. Some believe the Vampyre condition sleeps in the subconscious mind of these Vampyres and can be awakened through ritual, a traumatic event or a near death experience (OBE). Others believe that the potential can manifest because of an epiphany moment like experiencing “Vampyre Communion”, or getting your first pair of fangs, or meeting other kin. This is the most common form of the condition.
[Goddess Rosemary says Vampyrism is a “Condition,” but I want to elaborate that Vampyrism is a Spiritual Phenomenon of the Soul. It is a Spiritual Condition, not an illness or disease.]
BORN VAMPYRE’S:
Those who exhibit Vampyre symptoms at an early age and feed throughout their childhood. They are born fully awakened and aware of their powers and abilities, and their peers often consider them odd or eccentric. Of those with the Vampyre condition, these Born-Vampyres are the most rare, unique and powerful. Although they do not require a ritual awakening, many Born-Vampyres will choose to go through initiation to formalize their ties to a specific Household or Court of the Community.
MADE VAMPYRES:
Made Vampyres are believed by some to be created by a powerful form of ritual or a near death experience. Others believe that the “Made Vampyre” achieves the Vampyre condition through magickal or spiritual paths. Since many in the community believe that Vampyres are born with Vampyric potential, the existence of the Made ones is a controversial topic. Many dismiss the idea of “Made Vampyres” and believe instead that those who appear to be “made” through ritual are really Latent-Vampyres whose potentials are less apparent.
The descriptions here are only examples drawn from the core Houses of the Community, and do not reflect the entire scene. Many Houses have vastly different concepts than this, ranging from Darker more predatory philosophies, to more Goddess-based karma influences
[I’m going to add a 4th category which she didn’t mention in the Book of Secrets. “Sympathetic-Vampires” which I believe most so called “Made-Vampyres” are actually Sympathetic Vampires not Letent, but some are Latent Vampyres.]
SYMPATHETIC-VAMPIRES:
Sympathetic-Vampirism is a phenomenon that occurs whenever someone has been fed upon too deeply or too often by a Tru-Vampyre. Or are in the presence of Vampyre company for such extended periods of time, that they begin to take on Vampyre symptoms and behaviors. Sympathetic-Vampyrism is temporary, as all it takes for the human to revert back to normal is time away from vampyres. The theory is that when donors have been overly drained, that their subtle bodies will naturally Vampyrise others in an attempt to restore their energetic balance. But once they’ve recovered, the symptoms go away. A human can also become sympathetic Vampyres as a result of being in a Vampyres presence for extended periods of time. Subconsciously learning and adopting Vampyre Behaviors, traits and attitudes. Generally these individuals become Lifestylers, who are individuals who empower themselves by adopting the Vampyre archtype as an Identity. Lifestylers are full time live action role players who never break character. But they are followers of a Vampyre Philosophy of life and if they are witches they’ll adopt the Spirituality too.
[With the inclusion of “Lifestylers” it begs the question “What is a Vampyre?” Now that takes some unpacking. Generally what defines a Vampyre is a Predatory NEEEEEED, To feed on HUMAN-Vital Energy. Beyond that, we’ll have to dive deep into a wide variety of traditions and historical research which is what spawned the Vampyrism Movement. The movement of course being the quest to define what is the Vampyre. not as its been defined by folklore, myths, legends, fairytales, fiction and movies… But how its being experienced by Vampyres themselves. The Movement was a quest for the Vampyre to define themselves. Modern Society didn’t have the Answers, but Tribal Societies did! So what we discovered was, That we’ve been calling ourselves “Vampyres” when we really should have been calling ourselves “Shamans.” When we discovered this, we clasified Vampyrism as a syncretic path of “Predatory Spirituality.” Why is it Shamanism? its because Shamans are traditionally chosen by the spirits to become what they are. It is not a Choice to be a Shaman, it is a Spiritual condition, that places the Shaman into a position where they are forced to fulfill a duty to the spirits, and be their mediator. The process of becoming a shaman requires a spiritual death. In Vampyrism we refer to this as the death of the Mortal Mind, because when you awaken, you are no longer human. You are a demonic healer, wearing the husk of a human being. You are in a place between living and dead, waking and sleeping.
Thus is the reason why I have personally defined the Tradition as, “Vampyrism is a Weaponized form of Tantric Shamanism”]
WHAT VAMPYRE AWAKENING FEELS LIKE:
Most OG-Vampyres believe that you are born a Vampyre and Awaken to that realization at some point in your life. Many will be “Latent-Vampyres” but there will be those who are “Born-Awakened-Vampyres“. In both of those cases you are Born-A-Vampyre, and the potential to awaken to the Dark Flame is in the soul of the sleeping vampyre, who will be awakened to their true nature either by a traumatic event, or by coming into contact with a Vampyre who will awaken them.
The controversy comes when people of the Lifestyler community profess or entertain the idea that Vampyres can be MADE! meaning That Humans can be turned into Vampyres if they really really wanted to be vampyres. Thats like saying that Autism and ADHD is a choice, and that someone of a Neuro-Typical mind can be made into someone with a Neuro-Atypical/Neuro-Divergent mind. Which would then suggest that the Opposite is True. That Vampyres can just decide that they don’t want to be Vampyres anymore.
Its kinda like saying that Homosexuality is a Choice when it isn’t. Medical-Vampyres get allot of flack for their arguments too, because they treat Vampyrism as a physical Illness and a Disease which it isn’t. as if Homosexuality is a condition or disease.
The Vampyre Identity and the Awakening process into your Vampyre Identity is found to be very similar to that of a Sexual Awakening. Some people are born fully aware that they are Gay. While others only discover that they are Gay later on in their lives typically by the age of 15. But some don’t realize it until much later in their lives.
Typically what sparks a sexual awakening is a sexual experience that washes over you like a revelation of clarity (Or as Goddess Rosemary put it “A Moment of Epiphany”). When you Awaken into vampyrism, your whole reality shifts. You start to pay attention to the experiences that you’ve always had, but thought it was normal, or coincidence, or your mind playing tricks. You might have explained everything away and at some points probably convinced yourself that you are crazy. You notice the things that no one else does. Over time you develop a mask to hide who you are so you can blend in and be seen as normal.
Until one day you come across someone who isn’t hiding, who expresses freely and openly the things they see that others don’t notice. But you noticed. and they notice that you noticed. and they step up to you and look you in the eyes as if they see you for who you are behind the mask.
You feel seen and known for the first time in your life. You are not alone in the world like you’ve always thought. and now they’ve invited you onto a journey into the night. and they show you the truth of who you are, and who they are. and where you can find others like you.
You learn things about yourself that you’ve never known before, and suddenly you have access to powers and knowledge that you have previously denied yourself. You are introduced to your tribe, they take off their masks, and your mask is lifted. You are shown the Sacred mirror, where you will discover that you are more than Human, You are the Spawn of the Great Dragon, your Dark Flame has been ignited and the veil has been lifted… you have stepped into your true nature, and reveal yourself to be VAMPYRE!!!
VAMPYRE EXPERIENCE:
The Vampyre experiences the world very differently to that of normal people. Most folks don’t notice that we are nothing like them, because we learn to develop masks, so that we can better blend into the wide society of the Human world. But the process of pretending to be blind, and deaf, and mute, or senseless is an exhausting existence. To pretend that we don’t know what we aren’t supposed to know. and pretending that we can’t do what is believed to be impossible by those who can’t do it.
Its like a deaf person telling you that you can’t hear, because THEY can’t do it. Or a blind person telling you that you can’t see, because THEY can’t see. We pretend to be crippled in a world ruled by people with vast limitations, because if we were to stand up from our wheel chairs and walk or sprint or climb… we’d scare the humans, and they have the power to lock us away or even have us killed.
Today things are different, we are collectively taking back our power. and the world is changing.
But in the past we had to hide. Those of us who Identify as vampyres do so because we do not feel human. And this has lead many Vampyre tribes to believe that we are the first phase of the next step of human evolution.
But I think that Vampyrism is a Label we adopted as our Identity, due to a lack of information. There are things we know now that we didn’t know in the mid 20th century that we know now in the 21st Century.
We didn’t know about Neuro-Divergence. at the time those terms and labels were viewed with a stigma of disease and mental illness. Autism and ADHD wasn’t viewed the way that it is today.
Today its normal to have ADHD or Autism, or other kinds of Neuro-Divergent conditions. Because its no longer viewed as a disorder.
Now we know that the ADHD brain is set up to be better conditioned to a Hunter setting. Its a brain that can process information quickly, and adapt to any situation and is optimized for greater pattern recognition. This is the Big-Picture thinker.
The thing that reveals that Vampyrism is a culture and society for and by Neuro-Divergent people is the fact that we don’t feel human. There is a wide spectrum of experienced disassociation that is common among Vampyres. Which is why we focus so heavily on Astral Projection, Lucid Dreaming, Energy Manipulation, Psychic Development/training, Sensory Deprivation, Meditation, Breath control. Gestures, Postures, Yoga, QiGong, Tantra, etc. (By extension a deep seeded interest in the study and exploration of psychology, neurology, and hypnotic suggestion aka NLP. also behavioral science.)
Neuro-Typical people aka Humans/Mundanes have to get high, and use mind altering substances to achieve what we Vampyres experience naturally on a day to day basis.
We call ourselves Vampyres because due to lack of information, we didn’t know that we were a Generation of SHAMANS awakening to a Modern Industrialist society of Capitalism. The Modern World did not create a space for people like us to exist. But Tribal Communities always did. and if we had the Shaman Archetype first we would have latched onto that as our identity instead of Vampyre. But thats not how history unfolded. So as a result, Today we have the Vampyre Spiritual Tradition, emerging from what turned out to be a Modern Shamanic Movement.
So from now on when ever you look into Nightside Vampyre Traditions, or if it ever comes up, just think “SHAMAN” instead of “Blood-Sucker.”
The Misanthropic Vampire 