Vampires and Religion

I have been thinking about this sort of essay for a while now and I have been doing some thinking and reading about it and while I don't have any answers for my questions, I think the fact Vampire is actually a metaphor for us, the human condition, I thought I would put down my observations and meanderings. So much of what we write about Vampires have some level of spiritual thought and this may be by virtue of their being supernatural and the legend of the Vampire and how they came to be.

What I have attempted to do in writing this essay is try to keep religion as a neutral thing and not lean too heavily on any one religious group or creed. What I have done is separated religion into Western religion and that includes Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as well Pagan religions and Eastern religion, which would include Buddhism and Hinduism and the other contemplative religions of the far east. Technically, Christianity and Judaism and Islam are eastern religions by the fact they come from the Middle East, but for the purposes of this essay, I have called these religions Western. I have also tried to use neutral terms for God as not everyone sees the Creator the same way and I use terms like heaven and hell as simply common terms, not meant to be associated with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic notions of these places.

So, like I do with all my essays, I begin simply by asking myself questions. The "What if" questions are the basis of all thought and writing and even the formation of religions. Asking why or what or who or where and how leads us to ask the age old questions of Who are we? Where do we come from? How did we get here? What does it all mean? and Where do we go when our bodies die? Had we never asked these questions and sought the answers we would be devoid of religion and philosophical thought. As to my applying these questions to the mythology of Vampires and asking these questions about them, perhaps what I am really doing is asking the question about us, the human race in general, and myself. We all feel at one time or another very separate from our fellow man and this separateness is what is unique in the supernatural world.
Before we explore the souls of Vampires and their place in the world of imagination and what they really mean to us, I suppose I must begin this essay by defining religion and what is the ultimate goal of religion. Then I shall explore how these concepts can or cannot be applied to Vampires of lore and our story, True Blood, and then I will go into the notion of final "salvation" and the belief in the soul and that might work with Vampires and then I will discuss the notion of Vampire religion.

So what is religion? What is it meant to do? Is there one true religion above all religions and who gets to go to "heaven"? Who are the chosen people?

Asking these questions are the foundations of not only religion but of personal faith. We ask ourselves these questions and then explore what this means to us. Sometimes these questionings lead us to believe in something, sometimes it doesn't. Just as many people are turned off by the notion of religion as are turned on. If you are a believer then your own personal questions and the answers you come up with come together and give you a picture of not only the afterlife but the Creator. All cultures have some sort of religious or spiritual facet to their lives and they try to answer the questions the society has about life (Why is life difficult? How did we come to be? Who made me?) Death (Why do people die? Is death a punishment?) and the Afterlife (Where do we go? What happens to our soul when the body dies? If there is a place of reward, is there a place of punishment and who gets to go?).

The apparent goal of religion is twofold. The first goal is to forge a closer, more intimate relationship with the Creator and getting to know them. The second goal is to eventually be admitted into the afterlife. What lies between and makes up the different facets of religious faith is how do we get to the good place and how do we avoid the bad place. The basic rules are a system of checks and balances, codes of conduct and limits on behavior. Assurance of reward comes from "confessions of faith" or moments of enlightenment. This may come from the following and systematic fulfillment of rites and rituals and sacraments meant to help us incrementally more complex and closer relationships with the Creator. Others believe in study, contemplation and meditation to bring us into the embrace of the divine. Some believe a combination of the two is what is required to harmonize both faith and logic.

In the best case scenario, we invest our spiritual lives in ritual and study with a true heart and a desire to forge our intimate relationships with the Creator. In truth, there are many who go through the motions of rite and ritual because it is as much a part of cultural identity as a spiritual zeal. It may also be a way of simply satisfying the desire or dictate of family or culture or even government. For example, if we think Ireland, we think Catholic. Truth is, there are many Protestant churches in Ireland and the fastest growing religion in Ireland is Buddhism. Paying lip service to both "Church and State" for the sake of conformity and avoid persecution, either from the family unit or culture or government is a forgery for true faith but the sad truth of the matter is it does happen. To have complete control of a person or society, down to the state of one's soul and the rewards of the afterlife is considerable power and remarkably easy to abuse. To say "vote this way" or "support this political leader" or your soul is damned is the real politik is the first and most damaging and dangerous form of control one might exert.
Now, imagine you are Vampire.

Regardless of how you were made, either with or without your approval, you have thwarted the basic tenets of any religious faith. We are taught through our religious training the human body is mortal and will eventually die and disappear into nature but your immortal soul will move on in the next plane of existence. For the Vampire, the body is dead but it does not decay. It is held in stasis, still animated. Their souls do not do not cross over to the afterworld but resides in the dead body. This thwarts the grand design that our souls are meant to appear before the Creator and face final judgement to be deemed either worthy of heaven or damned to hell. But does this circumstance actually make you damned?

Let's look for a moment at Eastern religion. Most, though not all, Eastern religions believe in some form of reincarnation. If you managed to go through your life and you led an exemplary life you get to join the Creator and become one with them. If your life was less than exemplary, you get a celestial do over and you are reborn and you must relearn the lessons you didn't learn before.

As I noted in my essay in the Mythology thread about human Vampyres, they believe in reincarnation
( http://truebloodanonymous.forumotion.com/t9p200-mythology-of-true-blood-and-the-sookie-books#1631 ) and is through reincarnation the Vampyre gets their immortality. They believe that though they do die, their soul comes back has total recall of their past lives. In Eastern religions, you don't necessarily have total recall of the past life. If you are in a state of suffering then you are to pay attention and learn what the suffering is meant to teach you so you gain enlightenment. In short, if you are in pain, pay attention, God is tryin' to tell you somethin'.

So with this in mind, could being the Vampire of mythology a sort of physical expression of reincarnation. After all, in eastern thought we have reincarnation going from one rebirth to another, could this not be the same for the legendary Vampire, who must change to walk among us, to conform to certain extent to the changes wrought on the human world? Wouldn’t a Vampire like Eric look silly if he still dressed or spoke or behaved like the primitive person he was before he was Vampire? So the evolutionary process does exist for the Vampire, and therefore could he not be undergoing some level of reincarnation.

But what of God? Do they believe in God?

I suppose being immortal, or at the very least hard to kill, you might still believe in a Creator. After all Vampires had to come to come from somewhere and if they come from us, or were us originally, they would remember something about Creator, even if they are skeptical of their presence in their lives. In all the mythologies we read about Vampires, they are afraid of the True Death, or at least they do avoid it til they get to decide when they end. Being that they decide when they end, unless they themselves are killed, I suppose they would feel they would have no need of God. They may have decided in their own hearts they have nothing more to say to God, and because they have nothing more to say, they believe God has stopped having things to say to them. Perhaps the closest thing we can truly call them is agnostic. They acknowledge there may be God, but God is beyond them and they are beyond God.

When a Vampire dies, where does his soul go?

If we believe the Vampire is some sort of super concentrated ghost, as Madame Blavatsky states or as Edgar Cayce states, then they still have a soul, but its attachment to the physical self is different from our own, then we can state categorically the Vampire has a soul. Since the Vampire’s soul is no different than ours metaphysically, then we can have expectations the soul will undergo the same tests ours will when we die to enter the afterlife.

So who gets to go to the afterlife and are Vampires lost forever?

It is difficult to judge. We as humans are never supposed to judge, regardless of our creed. The Creator is the only one who may judge and how that is accomplished is different for every creed. But to simplify this discussion, I have taken the basic rules of any faith system, Christian or non and I have distilled them into a general code of conduct. As I said in the beginning of this essay, I am trying to avoid leaning one way or the other on any faith system, and these are general rules. Each creed has more detailed Spiritual Constitutions with amendments which discusses in detail the complex facets of life.

The Code of Conduct

Honor the creator
Honor the Earth
Do not kill
Do not steal
Do not lie
Respect your parents
Respect the sanctity of marriage
Respect your fellow man

If we look at the world created for us by True Blood and the Charlaine Harris novels, and we look at Vampire mythos, we could just about say, in snap judgement, all of our Vampires and the Vampires of mythology break these rules and they would therefore be lost to the afterlife. But if we look a little closer, we might have to wonder.

Honor the Creator- A Vampire has two creators: The Creator which made all mankind, and the creator of their Vampire life. Then they have their Maker and this ties into the respect your parents thing as well.

Honor the earth- I think Vampires do honor the earth. In some mythologies, a Vampire must lie in his home ground to rest during the day. This is where the Vampire gains his strength, this and blood.

Do not kill- This is tough for Vampires, but even humans say…Do not kill unless…We often read the paper and watch the news and say, “There is a person who could use being killing,” we do it all the time when we watch serial killers and child rapists and that sort of ilk. Vampires in True Blood and CH’s books do kill accidentally and on purpose, but usually for altruistic reasons: Eric killed the werewolf in Sookie’s house, he killed the red neck who burned the house with Liam, Malcolm and Diane in it, he kills to protect and to punish evil doers. So does Bill, he killed the Rattrays, he killed Uncle Bartlett, he killed witches. Godric in the book and the show killed Gabe when he was about to rape Sookie. So they seem to kill a certain type of human…a bad human or a human who has hurt them.

Do not steal- This too is hard for Vampires. We are told Vampires steal from the dead. For example, Bill made a gift to Lorena of a piece of jewelry he took off a victim. I have never seen him do it, but I am sure Eric steals or has stolen to survive. Some would say making Jessica stole her human life and forced her to be Vampire, which would go both in the stealing and do not kill categories. They do respect the Mine Law, which would keep one Vampire from claiming another Vampire’s human companion. To violate that law, you would be stealing. Pam stole from the Vampire under the spell of Marnie. Russell stole from Eric when he killed his parents and took his father’s crown. Eric stole when he seduced and killed Talbot and stole the crown back. But, if your family was starving or if you were in some dire straight, you might steal as well to survive. You might repent or even rationalize it for some altruistic reason, but you would do those things.

Do not lie- That one is tricky. Eric does not really lie to Sookie. He omits, which to some is tantamount to lying (I know, I sound like Amy Burley) but he never strings words together he knows is a lie. Bill on the other hand lies like a rug, but he has altruistic reasons for that. So is what he does somehow worse than what Eric does, or both equally reprehensible? (Both are reprehensible to me) Because they both do what they do for altruistic reasons, maybe they don’t feel so guilty if they reach their goal, which is they are trying to protect someone they love. I would actually call what they do for Sookie’s benefit high handed, and they are both high handed. But we are all given to lying a little, the little white lie to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, the lie to cover some misstep, we have all done it…So it is all normal, something we all do out of fear or protection or some other reason.

Respect your parents- Vampires may not have living human parents, or be beyond their influence once they become Vampire, but the Maker/Child relationship is one of those honored ties. In the book, Russell says Bill was Lorena’s and he could not really get involved with their troubles. Bill is Jessica’s maker and Sookie going against him and undermining his authority was not simply dangerous, it was rude and sneaking of her to do, even if her reasons were pure. Eric and Godric (show) and Eric and Ocella (books) are tied by the bond of Maker and Child and he must do as his maker tells him. So in that, you can say, Vampires do respect their parents.

Respect the sanctity of marriage- Well, I would say that if you are Vampire you have probably seduced whoever was handy and their marital status was of little importance to you. But even in the Vampire world, they do have limits. When Eric and Sookie forge the bond and Eric marries her under Vampire custom, the King of Nevada has to respect their union. Vampires also have to follow the Mine Law, which if not a marriage a domestic arrangement of some sort and therefore sacrosanct.

Respect your fellow man- Vampires may not be human and may have very little regard for humans, they do respect their fellow Vampires, even if they don’t really like them. Bill was mad and hurt even when Liam, Malcom and Diane were killed in the book. He took out his grief and anger on Sookie when she told him about it in the grave yard. Eric admired Sophie Anne in the book, and regretted her loss, and he regretted the death of his maker, who he both loved and feared. Bill and Eric will never be MyFace friends but Bill does respect Eric to a degree as his sheriff and his elder. And in the show, the same can be said in reverse, that Eric does respect Bill as his king (for the time being) even though he is older.

To end my essay, I have not come up with any answers, but I have tried to look at what life might be like if there were Vampires. How would they change our human perceptions of religion? Would we give up on religion and make arrangements to become Vampire at our peak of health and attractiveness? Would we become ultrareligious and cling to the notion Vampires are evil and join churches like the Fellowship of the Sun? Or would we marvel that there really are creatures who are fundamentally us and have such insight we could learn from and even expand not only our social lives but our spiritual lives? I would like to think we would be open to the experience. Imagine what we could learn and how it would change us.