January 2009 Meeting Minutes and Topics:
1. SORRY I WAS LATE:
I want to say; I am sorry to anyone who might have came and left
before I got to the meeting. I was very ill and very late to the
meeting. I actually ended up in the hospital a couple of days later. I
am ok now. I value everyone’s time. My New Years resolution is to work
on being more punctual.
2. PRIVACY AND RESPECT NOT ONLY FOR DONORS BUT MENTORS TOO:
A while back I mentioned the first name of three of my mentors who
are now senior citizens. I did not think anything of it. Most people
who know me personally already know these people. I also thought that;
since I did not use last names this would be ok. Boy was I wrong. I
would like to apologize to my mentors/vampire elders and to the coven
for doing this. We all know that donor privacy is golden; but this
also extends/expands to vampire elders who might be 60 or over and pre
date Michelle Belanger/Father Sebastian Vampire Years. They group up
in a really different time. The 1960’s and 1950’s are so much
different than the 2000’s. There was no way in the 1950’s/1960’s that;
we would have a woman for Secretary of State and a black man for
president. No matter how liberal the 40 and under crowd of vampires
maybe. The 60 and over vampire crowd may not be as liberal and open
about their vampirism; because of being hurt and life experiences with
people who are prejudice against Vampires and the Occult community at
large. In the past people in America were hung; because of their skin
color, denied basic rights based on religion, skin color, and any
other hairball concept a hate group could come up with. I may be very
courageous and out the coffin now; but as one mentor put it “If you
were black, female, and vampire in the 1960’s; I doubt very seriously
you would be as open as you are now; about your vampirism. You would
have been more concerned with the right to vote, get an education, and
sit anywhere you wanted to sit on the bus. You must have basic human
rights; in order to have Vampire Rights.” I do value the privacy of
mentors and donors alike. I am very sorry for this mistake; and it
will not happen again. The under 40 vampires believe and know change
is here; but the over 60 vampires know change is here; but because of
life experiences with harsh times also want to know how long change
will last? Some of them will live their whole lives in the coffin;
until the day they die; that is the way they survived in the 1950’s/
1960’s; they have become accustomed to this. I respect that. So from
now on, if I have to refer to my mentors; I will refer to them as “My
mentors” or “My elders.” Because I respect their privacy and rights. I
do not want to lose my mentors because they feel threatened that their
privacy and lives will be invaded.
3. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A COVEN:
a) First you have to start looking. Get online find meetup groups.
join online vampire groups.
b) Beware of Charlatans that want to hit you up for large sums of
money right away. If the Vampire group is selling you books that cost
$98.00-$100.00 and you still have no idea what their religious,
political, social, or spiritual views are then I would beware and run.
Also they should recommend other books, groups, and vampires to you
besides just them.
c) You want to find a coven that does not alienate you from your
family and friends. It is hard enough being a vampire; you do not want
to be seperated from all your family and friends.
d) Find a group that has respect and tolerence for other flows of
thought, rights, privacy, concepts, and paths of enlightenment. For
example I strongly believe that Vampires are immortal through
reincarnation. So it would be silly for me to join a group that does
not believe in the afterlife and immortality of the Vampire souls. It
would be silly for me to join a group that says you must sell your
soul to certain undead vampire Gods to become a vampire; because I
believe we are born vampires each lifetime; then we have an awakening
to our vampirism and past lives as vampires. Joining a group that does
not believe in reincarnation would be counter productive to my path of
enlightenment; because we would always be in constant conflict.
e) The coven should have a minister, high priest, high priestess,
pastor, spiritual leader that is readily available to you either by
phone, in person, or over the internet chatroom/email. The spiritual
leader should be willing to recommend resources to you and have a
genuine concern for coven members.
f) Any spiritual house should will have their own private spiritual
rituals, prayers, meditation, services; but they should also have a
public meeting maybe once a week if they have a building or once a
month if they do not have building were members and none members alike
can come and talk and fellowship.
g) They should listen to coven members, other people; because nobody
is perfect and mistakes are made even by ministers/priest/priestess.
Sooner or later people will make mistakes. Heck I just made one
myself the other day by mentioning the names of my mentors without
asking their permission first. I realized this mistake as soon as
someone else with a different view point than mine brought it to my
attention. I took steps to correct that mistake as soon as possible.
h) What kind of Vampire Coven do you want to be apart of? A large one
with lots of people or a small one with a few people? A coven with
lots of young people, or old people, or maybe a mixture of everyone.
i) One reason why I started my own coven is that many of the Covens
out there seem to keep dragging sexuality into Spirituality of
Vampirism. It was not an inclusive sexuality. I was not interested in
being in a coven that had a hidden agenda of being only for straight
people or only for gays/lesbian. I was also not interested in being in
a Coven that was a meat market; used to meat people for dates like a
night club. Granted love connections are made houses of worship; but
being a dating service is not the main goal of any church, Vampire
Coven, Temple or Witches Coven for that matter either. To me my
sexuality is important but not the main focus of my spiritual growth/
path. Vampirecraft, Energy Work, Chanting, praying, rituals, spells,
and worship of a Higher Power/God/Goddess, (Giving and Feeding on
Energy) is the main focus of my spiritual path. I know there is
tantric, sexual energy; but that is not the main focus of my spiritual
path nor is it the only form of Vampire Feeding.
j) Make sure you are not surrounded by unregenerate vampires. We all
know what it is like to be around tools or lack luster people that are
pills. They are not very happy or energetic; and they zap all your
energy. You can only associate with them for a short while. This is
100 times worse if you are a vampire/donor. Some Vampire groups/Covens
exist to basically to perform leacherous, underhanded rituals on
Vampires/Donors who are new to the vampire community. If you are in a
vampire group like this; you will feel sad, drained, tired, hopeless
and completely beat and tired after dealing with them. You will spend
most of your time argueing with people instead of sharing and
exchanging ideas. They maybe feeding off of you; and at the same time
trying to make you thing they are some kind of expert and you are just
some common plebian with no knowledge of the Vampire/Donor craft. This
is not true we all have our own wisdom and ideas; that we may want to
share or not share with others.
k) A good Vampire Coven will teach a Vampire doctrine of self
discipline and respect for donors, acolytes, familiars, family
members, empaths and friends of the Coven. They should teach respect
for the none Vampire community as well. A good coven does not support
energy leaching or energy theft from donors, Vampires, Vampire
acolytes, family and friends. If A Vampire Coven thinks leaching is
ok; (draining all the energy from others) is ok then this is probably
not the right group for you.
j) The Coven should have some guidelines/morals/regulations it maybe
the black veil or the 10 commandments, or some guidelines that the
group themselves came up with. Anarchy is a great punk rock song; but
kind of hard to run a Vampire Coven. Having key guidelines has kept
Vampires around for many centuries. Even though there are guidelines
Coven members should be free to have their own ideas and religious
beliefs. You should not have to give up your faith or identity of who
you are to be a vampire. Being a vampire/donor should be an addition
not a subtraction to your life.
l) The Vampire Coven should let people know they are a Real Vampire
Coven and not a live action role playing game within reason of
respected the privacy of coven members. So that half the members are
not confused and think they are in a LARP game group.
m) A Vampire coven should not put down one or the other kind of
Vampire/Donor (Sanguine, Prana, Elemental, hybrid). Each kind of
energy work has its pros and cons.
m) Many of us do not want the fake/phony worship associated with
certain of the mainstream religions such as Islam, Christianity, and
Judaism; but unfortunately too many of us have run into this; so we
are swayed to the occult community. Not all Christian, Islamic, and
Jewish Groups are bad; there are plenty of good ones out there; but
unfortunately Vampires seem to run into the downside of these groups
so much so that (If we read the bible, koran, or torah it is in
private). Then we go about being assembled into occult vampire groups
vice none occult groups such as Mosque, Churches, or Temples. Do not
give up on looking for a Vampire Coven you like or a group of
Christians, Jews, or Muslims that you like if that is what you want.
Not all experiecnes will be bad. You do not have to be the solitary
vampire destined to spend the rest of your life alone. We as vampires
can make our own peace, and Covenent with God that is outside of these
main faiths Covenents but at the same time foster a relationship of
fellowship with these groups. If they know us then they can not make
up wild stereotypes about real vampires based on fictional movies and
folklore. This is your spiritual journey for understanding the Vampire/
Donor Craft, Energy Work and to have inner peace and happiness/joy. Do
not let soul destroying negative people rob you of that. We do not
want to make the same mistake; when we have finally licked our
spiritual wounds enough to come out and search once again churches/
Covens/Temples/Mosque we might be end up pleasantly suprised. I did.
When all the smoke clears we want something of substance, harmony,
strength, love and peace to remain in a vampire coven and any
spiritual house for that matter.
n) Singing, Chanting, Dreamcasting, Spellcasting, Energy Exchange/
Work, Praying, Vampirecraft Study, Donorcraft Study, Magic Study,
Conjuring and Communication with God/Goddess, Angels, Vampire Elders,
Ancestors, LWA, and Spirits is great; but it is nice to also have
flesh and blood coven members to ask questions too. Even if it is over
the internet, by phone, or through email, mail (rarely do tons of
Vampires/Donors live in one city). If you live in an area flooded with
Vampires/Donors you are very blessed to have that support system. I
only know of one other Vampire in Conyers; who I met through a
meetup.com Group. If anyone knows of more in Conyers please let me
know. I would love to talk to them.
o) A Vampire Coven should be condusive to enhancing your spiritual
Growth.
p) Vampires do not really recruit other Vampires; that is really taken
care of in the ethereal realm. The Sheol is neither increased or
decreased just different folks or reincarnated and others are resting
in Sheol until their next lifetime and have their next awakening from
past lives as vampires. An awakening causes someone to believe without
dispute within themselves; that they are vampires. Once awakened, a
vampire should be treated by other Vampires and Donors with a new
found fervor and eagerness to help them learn and grow; because we
have all been there before. There are certain things about the Vampire/
Donor Community that you are not going to learn from the none occult
community. So yo may want to pass on a coven were everyone has an
elitist, snotty attitude as if they are too busy to answer you
questions.
q) A coven should believe in Vampire Feeding and Donating, spiritual
gifts of vampires, social responsibility of Vampires/Donors/Coven
members; and helping those less fortunate.
4. WHAT DO YOU WANT OUT OF A COVEN:
Please post any thing that is important to you when looking for a
Vampire Coven and why; this will be of great help to us all if
everyone can share their ideas.
Many Blessings and Lots of Love,
Vampire Libby
Vampire High Priestess Libby Hodges