SHADOWS OF THE VAMPIRE

 By Shade
 

  What personifies the Dark Side of the Force in American popular culture? What is the Jungian Shadow of mass consciousness? I nominate that ever-popular daemonic force, the Vampire.

  Since the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897 the general public has had an ardent love affair with this dark and mysterious stranger. Stoker's work was actually a brilliant piece of writing that originated a number of novel literary devices such as using extracts from letters, diaries and wax cylinder recordings as the means of narration, and also the use of an actual historical personage as the basis of one of the first true modern antiheroes. The setting of the story in Transylvania, and later London, brought a mythic and supernatural past into a recognizable and rational present, an eruption of chaotic forces into a scientific world; and the Victorians, like ourselves, were not immune to the Romantic appeal of a challenge to a merely mechanistic universe.

  Since that time there has flowed forth an endless stream of books, art, magazines, films, comix, television, video games, and erotic fantasies centered around the vampire. Some of us remember Hammer Films or Dark Shadows, others Anne Rice; there has never in the last century been a time when new material was not appearing. Now, as with so many other recent phenomena, fiction (?) is becoming lifestyle: the Goth fashion statement has birthed nightclubs and cafes; fan clubs become cults, teenagers run amok and drink the blood of their parents, folks share fluids in new and unusual ways. There are dentists who will permanently implant custom-made fangs and opticians who sell red contact lenses. Basic black never really goes out of style. Nosferatu does Oprah.

  How might we interpret this? Psychologically, the archetype of the Shadow in Jungian analysis is suggestive: all those aspects of the Self which are feared and repressed are projected into a rejected segment of the psyche, and must ultimately be reintegrated into the larger whole, lest the eruptions of the unconscious become uncontrollable. The embracing of this shadow is also a source of great power, and some magicians have been known to externalize this darkness as a deliberate glamour, an illusion of identity which serves as a vehicle for shaking loose the emotional energies and stratified beliefs of those around them. Many magi seek their Holy Guardian Angel without considering the equal importance of comprehending their personal demons as well; the traditional Abra-Melim system of magick requires one to master both sides of the Self, to achieve the sacred marriage of heaven and hell. Crowley, on the other hand, employed vampirism as a metaphor for oral sex: how typical of the man!

 Nor should we neglect the unfortunate influence of the common or garden variety of ‘psychic vampire’: all of us have met them, many of us have had sexual relationships with them, and they can suck out your life-force just as effectively as any hypothetical ‘supernatural’ entity.

  Politically, the capitalist system often appears vampiric: the endless corporate greed which feeds off our consumer culture, the bloated bureaucracy which sucks tax dollars from every transaction, the twisted republican administrations whose transparent mission is to transfer the wealth of the many into the hands of the few, the credit card industry which lures the population into debt while conveniently ignoring the biblical prohibition against usury; good christians all. The vast and unholy military-industrial-academic complex happily colludes in the wars and covert machinations which constitute the continuation of colonization by other means, and America, with four percent of the world's population, consumes more than a quarter of the resources. How embarrassing.

  We should not forget another striking representative of our collective psyche: that marvelous modern invention, the serial killer. By night they stalk their victims, most of whom are never found; how many people disappear in our country every year? The FBI estimates that there may be at least one hundred serial killers working today, most still unidentified, hungry for blood.... a bit too real, perhaps? Maybe we prefer the fictional vampire to the appalling truth of a genuine threat.

   For there is no denying that the vampire has a charming side, or that the erotic thrills of danger and sexuality lie very close together for some of us. As the old rules of society break down, as many people seize the freedom to explore new possibilities, anything goes. On the other hand, as the pressures of survival take new forms and current structures and expectations become harder to escape, others may seek extremes as a way of breaking loose from limitations, as a way to feel more alive.

  When S&M becomes merely another lifestyle, and 'til death do us part' becomes considerably more of a challenge in the light of vastly increased life spans, when multiple partners become as available as transgender surgery, can practicing vampires be so far behind? For blood is the stuff of life itself, of birth and death and sacrifice, and to share red blood is to share power, identity, risk, to face the reality of organic being and all that it implies. Part of the attraction is leaving safety far behind, another part is exploration of what may be the ultimate intimacy. Perhaps the tragic spread of AIDS is merely a wake-up call regarding the toxic effects which humanity is having upon the survival of the Earth and the countless other entities upon Her; is not our imperial Texas Cowboy wannabe's mindless drive to suck all the oil from the globe rather vampiric, a need to sink the fangs of the oil rig into the most remote and pristine remnants of the planet?

  In Magick the paths to power are where you find them, and in the New Aeon freedom and revolution go hand in hand, while Dayside and Nightside mingle; initiations and ordeals take place all around us. Eros and Thanatos, Sex and Death, are the Yin and Yang of things.  "The Blood is the Life, Mr. Renfield!"