Community is important for human society. We are social creatures with complex structures of engagement. We require love, support, and safety often engendered by our fellows around us. But what happens when that community bites far more than it assists?

Today I have found myself removed from the term ‘vampire’ which had been a word that I long associated with. I explain some of this in my previous blog post here. I want to shift the conversation from my internal struggle to my observations of the community at large. I want to attempt to lay down my perspective so that it is clear where I stand and that there is an understanding between myself and many friends who remain in the Vampire Community.

To define the Vampire Community, we must understand the collective that it is. It is a marginalized and often occult space with a patchwork quilt of identity and esoteric knowledge, folded in with countercultural practices that society at large may shy away from. The VC and other similar communities become circles of resistance, survival, and empowerment when they function at their best. They generate safe spaces and security many crave and desire to have happy, healthy lives. It means at their very best, these types of communities become beacons, beacons so bright they attract those who wish to capitalize and consume them.

The VC has a long and fascinating history that often runs congruent with goth, alternative, kink, and occult scenes. Individuals often found themselves associated, even loosely, with more than one of these communities. They are socially considered ‘dark’ spaces, where in the shadows of places and the self, truths are revealed. The VC came with the additional allure of self-empowerment, romanticism, and reclamation that when twisted became the fertile ground for some of the more toxic elements to root deeply and change the course of the scene within the 1990s.

With so many vulnerable clustering together to be themselves, it was bound to draw individuals who maintain a certain blend of charisma and ambition. In an attempt to keep this blog post fair, I believe in those early days that the intentions were genuine and good. Leaders rose to help give structure when it was desired. Like-minds came together, forming groups to share ideas. There was a renaissance of growth and it was also here where the weeds began. Leadership in the VC came in two distinct flavors: those who lead from a place of service and those who lead from a hunger for power. The latter began to dominate.

Ask anyone of an age to recall the 1990s and 2000s in the greater VC and they can point to the major rifts and cliques in the community. A race to put Vampire into books, to hit the mainstream, to revolutionize the concepts the VC had lifted up as their identity was ongoing. Who was published first? Who spoke about a topic first? Who did the original thought belong to? All of these questions led to divisions that spurned hurt feelings, generated drama, and trauma, and ultimately enriched the toxicity we find today. Groups of innocent people striving to reclaim a sense of power from their often hard lives were coaxed along by individuals who appeared to know what to do. Leaders, who collected those looking for answers as bases of power, began to structure their communities within the Greater VC. Lines were drawn. The community is divided like the cells of some greater being.

Actual predators were drawn into the VC. The sense of power over the body of another human proved too much like a drug. It scratched the itch of the unsavory elements and set many up for pain, abuse, and harm. In some instances it was physical. Allegations of sexual abuse are unfortunately common in the Vampire Community. Barely a cursory glance into social media spaces and you come away with dozens of stories from dozens of perpetrators. In other instances it was emotional abuse, mental abuse, and in some cases it was cult-like behaviors, all of it stemming back to those fundamental elements of power and control.

My unvarnished opinion? The perpetrators of abuse in the VC that I am most aware of were those who had and have the core wounds of feeling powerless and lacking control. They often wrap around themselves an insulation or security blanket of elitism, loyalty, and obedience as a means to blunt the ache. They drape themselves in self-importance, surface values of ethical behavior that do not extend to a core belief, and strive to be wisdom-keepers or at least appear enough so to fool the masses. The vampire community leaders who failed us all suffer from some of the deepest and most brutal wounds of ego. While I can understand how it happened, it still does not excuse the behavior. I can be empathetic and sympathetic while also holding the line of fundamentally removing my support of those who became the very monsters they sought refuge from.

My stepping back and away from these spaces was from a place of self-preservation. I acknowledge those in the VC who are striving for better and I will continue to support those who hold the torch for progressive and positive change. After my direct experiences brought me layers of pain, hardship, and trauma that required therapy and deprogramming, I have a new and affirmed sense of where my boundaries are and where I intend to keep them. I will also always be an ear to those looking to reclaim themselves on the other side of similar experiences. I will always advocate for positive change. I will always strive for people to be their most authentic selves without stripping them of their power.

A Community of Teeth

The Issue of Vampirism