Poll Says Most SA VC Participants Still Favor Pagan Religions In 2017

A poll conducted by the SA Vampyre Academy between August and September this year has indicated that the religious identity apparently most popular with SA VC folk is Paganism, which took a clean 50% of the response group. Within that group, 21.43% belongs to Wicca alone, also making Wicca the single largest religious presence within the SA VC.

Still holding on to second place, Christianity is the next most popular religious identity group within the SA VC, which took 22.73% of the total response group.

Pagans In The VC – by Serephim Lena Karayan

Most Vampyres are Pagan but very few Pagans are Vampyres. Even fewer it seems, are “practicing” Christians. My struggles with finding myself have always left me searching in different directions for a religion, a belief system, a purpose if you will. Witchcraft has always intrigued me, but I was raised in the belief that it was ‘wrong’. I researched religion – from Christianity, Buddhism Islam, to Hinduism. None of these religions made sense to me; there were too many questions that had no answers. I tried practising a few of them but I felt no connection, no purpose. When I figured out that I was a Vampyre, it came as a huge relief to me. Before that, I really thought something was wrong with me – I found myself constantly seducing people and feeding off their desire. My friends put it down to “commitment issues” but I knew there was more to it . The need I felt for their desire had to be more than just a “little” issue – and then fate led me to Kay, who enlightened me in so many ways.

Christians vs Christian Extremists – By Lunah Valur Eir

Human beings spend a lot of their time – far too much time, I think, seeking what they think is perfection. Some think they will find this in religion – and that following a religion will somehow make them perfect. The desire for perfection – to be perfect, when it spills over from one’s own life, into the lives of others, when it becomes an obsession – gives them the self-assurance that they can show others how to be ‘perfect’ as well – and if they resist, to force that vision of perfection on them.

This quest comes at a price, driving some to insanity and others to extremism, with a very thin line in between.

Especially when it comes to religion…

SA Police To Get Witch And Vampire Hunters

In a press release today, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) addressed the formation of a new Occult Crime Unit to investigate crimes supposedly linked to supernatural events or committed out of a belief in the supernatural.

Of special significance to our community is the specific mention of vampirism as one focus area of this new unit, which comes across as eerily similar to its predecessor, which terrorized non-Christian religious and spiritual communities through the lens of ill-conceived “Satanic panic” doctrine during its 1991-2000 tenure, until it was disbanded after being found to be “out of touch” with the country’s new constitution. Our community – and indeed any community which may find itself in the cross-hairs of this unit, should be wondering what has changed, and why? 

SA VC Celebrates Human Rights Day 2012

Today is Human Rights Day in South Africa. Today, we as the Vampyre – and associated community of this country, celebrate both our humanity as well as
our other-ness under the safety and provisions of the South African Constitution.

The Vampyre Connection

VC members were horrified last week by the news of the Iraqi massacres in which Islamist terror-militia abducted teenagers from schools and from the streets and brutally killed them. Pictures of several victims were circulated on the web over the weekend. An estimated 117 teenagers were reportedly marked for death specifically because they dressed in Western-inspired styles, wore non-traditional haircuts, or were identified as being gay. For some time before the massacres, Iraqi religious leaders and even the Ministry of the Interior are supposed to have released official documents, accusing those who identify as “Emo” of “sedition”, “witchcraft” and “satanism”. Of particular interest to our community however, is the specific accusation levelled against the victims, of being “vampires”. Were they really?

In Darkness And Light: Part 1 of 4 – by Val

So a Christian and four witches walk into a house – and perform a Catholic exorcism… Wait, did I mention that 2 of the witches are also Vampyres? Sounds like the start to an awful joke, don’t you think? And yet, my friends, this is exactly what happened a few weeks ago. Together they faced the unknown, dogged by hostile entities and even demons – and they prevailed.

And Now Ex-Vampires?

When we Vampyres in South Africa considered “coming out” to the Pagan community earlier this year, we bore in mind all the warnings about doing so. We already knew that there would be a mixed reaction from Pagans. We anticipated skeptics – which we view as a rather healthy outcome, because it is skeptics who keep us safe.

Blood And Vampiric Beliefs

Vampyres are synonymous with the consumption of blood – but Vampyres – like most people, have certain personal and religious beliefs around the use of blood, folk-loric and mythical – and like other people, we hold diverse beliefs about this precious resource and how it relates to us. In this article, I ask some local vamps about their beliefs and rituals concerning the blood.