Regency Shuffle At SAVA

Following Lunah Valur Eir’s shock resignation from House Valur and from her position as Praetor to the Regent of the SAVA some weeks after announcing the closure of Coven d’Eir, a new successor has been appointed to the position of Praetor.

Seraphim Valur Nereza, also of the late Coven d’Eir and previously serving as Secretary to the Regency, today assumed the role of Praetor.

Another housemate of the erstwhile Coven d’Eir, Dagan Valur Nightalon, has assumed the role of Secretary to the Regency.

The Regency of the SAVA now consists of Octarine Valur (Regent), Kay Valur Vakir (Praetor), Seraphim Valur Nereza (Praetor) and Dagan Valur Nightalon (Secretary).

Congratulations to the new appointments!

Due to inactivity, the social Orders formed last year as committees to address social functions within the SAVA have been nullified. SAVA members will be encouraged to participate in group activities or projects on an ‘as needed’ basis.

An open letter to the South African Vampyre Community – by Octarine Valur

I am Octarine Valur. You may have heard of me, you may have heard a few interesting things about me. Some of them may even be true. I’m called the founder of South Africa’s VC. I’m called ‘Regent’ of the SA Vampyre Alliance. Some have called me ‘despot’ and some have even mocked me by calling me ‘Queen’. You may wonder which of these things is true, and you may be wondering what the SAVA is about.

Despot? Queen? No. I am neither of those things. Anyone who knows vamps, knows that getting a group of us to face in the same direction at the same time is like herding cats. Not all of us would agree about anything at the same time or in the same way, and neither would all of us get along or see eye to eye. A strong leader gets things done, a passionate leader holds on until it is.

I am Regent of the SAVA, yes. I founded the SAVA, yes – after spending several years in search of the elusive South African Vampyre Community online, and of finding nothing more than a handful of solitaries interested in becoming something more, something bigger, and more real and significant. An actual community. A family.

That’s what the SAVA is about – making the community around it into a family. The SAVA is an organization started in May 2011, and its purpose was to build the SA VC, beyond the isolated little FB groups and offline solitary vamps scattered across South Africa – to create a thriving network of real-life Vampyre covens, courts and social groups. To some degree, SAVA has succeeded.

Today we have at least one House in our community, House Valur and its two covens, d’Eir and Veritas – and the SAVA and its various projects are our legacy. Today, thanks to the efforts of the SAVA, vampyric Pagans can participate openly in Pagan groups and within the Pagan community with understanding and without fear of prejudice. Thanks to the SAVA, the SA VC has a face and a voice. Despite the criticism brought against us over the years, our critics have never delivered anything worthy of compare to the SAVA.

This is to let you know – the Awakened of South Africa – we are here. We’re here for you, and we’re not going anywhere. Take our hand – join us in making the SA VC better!

The Future of the SA VC – Decided

The survey launched on last Friday has now closed. As promised, the results are tallied and posted below for transparency.

Despite the survey being linked to and distributed across all known South African VC groups as well as cross-posted to in local Pagan groups and even a few international VC groups, and several admonitions to complete the survey, the number of responses received in this week was only 25.

Are Vampyres Perceptibly Different To Non-Vampyres? 10/10 Reiki Practitioners Say “YES!”

In a poll conducted between July and August 2015 the South African Vampyre Academy, a VC research and statistics gathering entity, found that ten out of ten Reiki practitioners interviewed claimed to be not only aware of Vampyres and vampyric people, but also to be able to identify them by their energy signatures, by sight, feel or touch, suggesting that there is something definable and different between Vampyres or vampyric people and non-Vampyres which warrants further investigation.

The Donor & Vampyre Relationship – by Lunah Valur Eir

To be or not to be. That is the question…. A trivial question from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, yes? A trivial question from a Donor to a Vampyre, not so much.

Vampyre’s feeding…. Your mind races to strobe-lit images of beautiful women covered in blood, sex and music, lustful eyes, your nerves stand on end, echoes of moans and sounds of pleasure… This is where the fictional movie rudely disappoints – there’s nothing that glamorous asking someone for some of their blood. But it’s our lot as sanguines to depend on those that are willing, or to resort to meat-blood.

Picking a Donor, or at least coming to an understanding with one, doesn’t happen often – but when it does, the angels sing, the planets align, and we feed. But even something as simple as feeding turns out to be a lot more complex than one would expect, and that complexity must be taken as seriously as life and death.

New Articles Index Makes Life Easier For SAVN Readers

Readers can now access all articles posted on SAVN since June 13, 2011 by clicking on the Articles Index link at the top of the site! The listing will be updated periodically to reflect all new articles posted, making finding an article or browsing for interesting topics much easier. You can now stay informed of what’s happening in the SA VC much more conveniently.

VVDFGS Survey Enters Second Season

The second data collection season for the VVDFGS survey is now open. Since May 2012 the VVDFGS Survey has been conducted by the SA Vampyre Academy via the South African Vampyre Culture Center. The official collection period ended in July 2012, but has been extended indefinitely in order to collect more responses. Every few months, the database will be updated with newly received responses, and updated results will be presented to the community and made public. 

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…

The Potential For Good vs Evil In The Vampi(y)re Community – A Dissertation by Octarine Valur

Vampyres. Real living human Vampyres, not the mythical fictional variety or the lifestyler – real people who have a natural deficiency of some sort and who must feed on diverse energy forms, including that found in blood (with deference also to those who do not ascribe to the notion of energy being the necessary element contained in human blood) in order to maintain a healthy balance. We see ourselves as a unique group, both part of the human condition – and in some ways detached or separate from it at the same time.

Blood, Sympathetic Magic & Vampires

I’ve often wondered about the way fiction represents the vampire and the way these vampires feed. In modern times, in more recent books, TV series and movies, vampires are shown in ways very similar to the reality – that they do not HAVE to kill those they feed from, but can be satisfied with a few sips and be done with it. Much like real Vampyres, who have standing agreements with their Donors.