Mages think about enlightenment. Scientists, mystics, and magicians alike strive to broaden their view of the world and overcome old modes of thinking. It is in our nature. Perhaps it
is our nature.
Enlightenment isn't the first think we think of when discussing vampires. Self-centered, grasping, neurotic, hard to kill, meddling, sure... but enlightened? But speaking of overcoming old modes of thinking, perhaps we (and they) are in for a rude awakening.
Vampiric enlightenment may actually exist. I stumbled on this body of lore while doing a research project on strategies for controlling the beast vampires find within themselves. Since my lasts publication was on the nature of defending against vampire powers, I thought it appropriate to publish something on the pro-vamp side. Maybe not all vampires are asshats. Or rather, maybe they don't have to be asshats.
It turns out that there seems to be a
spiritual cure for the Beast, and potentially all aspects of the vampiric
curse. But to get these stories, you have to go into the way back, and I mean
the way way back machine and tread in realms of myth that are just slightly
younger than gravity. I should point out that these stories could be complete
and total crap. That said, I like them, and there is a compelling ring of
something that might sound a little like truth to them.
The First
The first
one begins with the first vampire. Now, there are many first vampires. There
are Chinese, Greek, Indonesian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and Slavic
vampires. And each of these cultures has a different first vampire. So I should
point out that I have no reason to suspect this myth is any better than any of
the others. It’s the
only one that has anything close to a happy ending. In every other story, the vampires are demons who just have to die.
So if I were a gambling man wagering on the truth of myths, I’d bet that vamps are screwed. But here’s the one that has a potential happy ending.
It starts
with the murderer Cain. You know the beginning of that tale. Cain bashes in
Abel’s head. God doesn’t like that, so Cain (though some vampiric scholars
prefer Caine) gets cursed and wanders the land miserably. It isn’t clear
exactly how the curse gets laid. Some versions say the initial curse from the
Almighty was the whole package. Other versions say that Cain shacks up with
some woman (the first Verbena, actually) and she grants him power and as part
of that power he gets three curses from three angels while he’s tripped out on
a seeking. The curse of fire, the curse of sunlight, and the BEAST WITHIN,
which makes him want to dine on blood. Our buddy Cain also gets visited by a fourth
angel who tells him that as much as his life sucks, there is a way out. A way
called Golconda. A way of
forgiveness, salvation, light, and life that will break the other three curses.
Sadly, Cain
doesn’t seem to get there. Some stories say Cain tells God to fuck off. Others
stories say Cain tries but fails. Either way, the OG vampire never breaks his
curse. Further searches on him go cold.
The Demon-Saint
BUT, we are
armed with another word. Golconda. Back to the drawing board. Recasting the
search we find reference to a dude named Saulot. I’m unclear on the genealogy,
and I’m not sure it matters for our purposes. Saulot was a prophet, and unlike the rest of his kind he sorta hated being a vampire. He was into meditation and other spiritual exercises to overcome
his condition while also serving his kind as healer. He disappears for a few
centuries, some say Asia, and turns up with a third eye and preaching about Golconda. His tale gets weird after
that. Some say he’s a hero-saint. Other people say he’s a soul-eating monster.
There’s this whole thing with some lich-mage that Saulot may or may not have
been eaten by. I tried to find him directly and ask about Golconda (because
vampire; he could be alive!), but my cursory search failed.
This
Golconda thing has been a bit of a myth. Some vampires claim they have achieved
it. It is associated with various boons: the lack of anger or fear, the ability
to learn any vampiric power, staying up during the day, and losing the vampiric
condition entirely.
How to get there? Mixed reviews.
Some say they need a teacher or mentor. Others say they need to foster a saintly
demeanor. Others say they need to go on quests to prove their commitment. Others
say they need to atone for literally every wrong they've ever done. I can’t find
the truth of it, exactly. It all seems like a pseudo-Christian veneer stretched
over vampire lore. Some say that Golconda is preceded by a state called
Suspire, which is like a nearly perfect state. I like the myth that says the
Suspire vampire (which is fun to say) goes on one final mindquest, and
afterward either goes into a final frenzy or reaches Golconda.
And that’s where the trail runs
cold.
For amateurs.
Any armchair historian listening to
the myth of Saulot should be asking him or herself one very simple, very
important question: What the fuck happened in Asia? Goes off and comes back
with a third fucking eye spouting some new mystical mumbo jumbo and maybe
eating souls or maybe causing enlightenment? Saulot 1: shy prophet boy, Saulot
2: ….. Saulot 3: Wacked out Demon King or Saint.
So Asia. Come on. Does that even
classify as a mystery?
What went down in Asia? No mention
of Saulot, but there is some foreigner who gets referred to as Zao-lat. Really?
I’ve had more trouble with Blue’s Clues. Anyway, what do the legends say about
this mysterious Zao-lat? I’ll quote: Zao-lat was “a student of Xue, a thief, a
despicable creature who benefited from Xue's compassion, learned Ch'iuh Muh,
sat at the feet of the master and stole his wisdom.”
Oh-kay. No mincing words there.
Now, one of the things we look for in historical records is convergences. If
things get mentioned the same way in different sources who didn’t copy each
other, they probably happened. Do we have convergence here? I did some looking
into Ch'iuh Muh. It’s a magical power of the eastern vampires. It translates
roughly into “Dragon Tears.” Badass, right? Do you know what Ch'iuh Muh bestows
on its practitioners? A third fucking eye. I’d call that some convergence. Saulot's thievery lead me to Xue.
The Master
Grand Arhat Xue is a super
renown “Kuei-jin” (it’s what they call themselves) mystic who articulates in the text the Blood Sutras a philosophy he calls the “Five Dharmas.”
Here’s the gist. Vampires are demonic creatures, but they can get to
enlightenment and return to the karmic cycle. By behaving a lot like a mage
(following a mystic path, having bursts of insight, and striving for
enlightenment), vampires can slowly subsist on more sublime chi. If vampires are not
enlightened, they draw chi out of blood. As they become more enlightened, they draw it out of the air. Super enlightened vamps can draw it out of the chi let
of by the gently unfolding lotus flower of the universe (no shit). These five
Dharmas of Xue’s are five different ways of achieving enlightenment. They have
to do with resplendent cranes and thrashing dragons and all manner of
awesomeness. Here’s a summary:
- Resplendent Crane (Hun). The Way of the
Resplendent Crane is a highly legalistic collection of schools, dedicated to
reversing the Wheel of Ages and restoring virtue.
- Devil-Tiger (P'o). The Devil-Tigers believe that
they are replacements for the incompetent demons of ages past; they punish
sinners and seek enlightenment through pain and violence.
- Song of the Shadow (Yin). The yin-aspected Song
of the Shadow, also known as Bone Flowers, are coldly logical necromancers who
seek dispassionate reasoning and enforcement of dharmic balance. They are also
tightly tied to mortal society through their descendants, and often assist
their families even centuries afterward.
- Thrashing Dragon (Yang). The often misunderstood
Thrashing Dragon dharma recognizes that they are dead, but seeks to achieve
enlightenment by imitating and interacting with the living. Despite the stunned
disbelief of some Resplendent Cranes, they are a fully recognized Dharma, even
if they seem to eat and screw their way through unlife.
- Thousand Whispers (Balance). The Thousand
Whispers live a sequence of masks, new identities they construct after death in
order to understand mortal life and hopefully transcend it.
There are other Dharmas created by
other people, but those five are Xue’s. I’d stick with the OG.
Xue goes on to say that vampires have various souls. A “wind soul” that is the directed, harmonious, rational Hun soul. But they also have a P’o soul, which is
what one might call the Beast, and it has three subparts, the fire, wave, and
shadow soul.
Here’s some real advice. According
to Xue, even though the P’o soul is bad news and unharmonious, vamps can’t just
ignore it or stifle it. If they over crush it, they become cold and dead and too
fucking rational. They need to be in harmony with their disharmony. No shit. They need to accept, understand, and assimilate their Beast. The vampiric Beast, according to
shen philosophers, even has a nature of its own. Which they need to learn and
understand. It can be a bandit, deceiver, demon, fool, or any number of
seemingly bad but useful and ultimately not bad in that they have to let it be
disharmoniously harmonious (or harmoniously disharmonious, I’m not sure, my
translation was unclear) with their rational nature.
The eastern vampires have an
elaborate list of activities that basically move vamps forward and backward on
their quest for Dharmic enlightenment. The nice list includes:
- Being taught by a Kuei-jin who has mastered a
higher level in their Dharma.
- Being taught by a Kuei-jin who holds a higher
rank than their; but in a different Dharma.
- Receiving instruction from a bodhisattva (super
vampire).
- Understanding a master's koan.
- Receiving instruction from a Yama King or similar
powerful spirit.
- Journeying through the spirit worlds (for the
first time).
- Understanding a master's koan.
- Doing something within the tenets of their Dharma
that costs them something important.
- Meditating for at least one week with one of the
training methods.
- Coming very near to death.
- Understanding a master's koan.
- Receiving an auspicious omen.
The naughty list (they call them Acts of Blindness)
- Violating some important tenet of their Dharma.
- Attempting to follow the tenets of their path,
but failing in some really costly manner.
- Acting in an extraordinarily egotistical manner.
- Losing themselves in mortal concerns and
neglecting enlightenment.
- Losing themselves to the P'o (even if they belong
to the Devil Tiger path).
- Discovering that a Dharma teacher lied to them.
- Being banished by a priest or other person with
True Faith.
- Killing an ancestor or bodhisattva.
- Meeting the Little Death.
- Receiving a bad omen.
Moving Forward
Here’s the bad news. Kuei-jin are
different from western vampires. I believe they are metaphysically different.
They aren’t made the same way, and there seem to be variances. So maybe none of
this stuff works on western vampires at all. But there are a few reasons to hope.
One. The western Golconda myths
correlate roughly to aspects of the Dharmic journey. Find a mentor; taught by a
master. Can learn any power; chi flows in a way that is magnified. There are
corollaries, which suggests it may work.
Two. The western version is ok, but
Xue’s method is more complete. Which means there are many things to try, more
avenues to go down. Also, based on my academic intuition, I’d say Xue’s is the
more coherent doctrine. I think the westernized version oversimplifies the
Beast in unproductive ways (influenced by Christianity, if you want my
opinion).
Three. It worked for Saulot. It
did. He learned the third eye trick. And he taught it. But here’s the very,
very best part. You know how I mentioned that Saulot is known for being both a
saint and a soul eater? Some chalk this up to lich-mage propaganda. But it
isn’t. Here’s the deal. Ch'iuh Muh, the
Dragon Tear, is a discipline that manifests one way when vampires are in their Hun
soul, and another way when they are in their P’o soul. When in Hun, they can
purify others and coax their souls out and make give them enlightenment. When
in P’o soul, they can poison others and coax their souls out and gnaw on their
spirit bits. Saulot was just struggling with a spiritual reality misunderstood
in his geographical region. But in the east, he would be seen as just crying
another Ch'iuh Muh. That mystery I’ll take a little credit for.
So, if you have vampire friends who are interested in overcoming the ravages of their condition, based on the myths of Cain, Saulot, and Xue, there are a few things they can do:
- Contact Angel #4 and get him to break God’s
curse on them. I’m only sorta joking.
- Find Saulot and get him to teach them about
Golconda.
- Find another Golcondic (is that a word?) vampire
and have him mentor them.
- Travel to the far East and learn from the
Bodhisattvas.
- Learn about and meditate on the various paths of
vampiric enlightenment and see if any make them want to eat fewer people.
- Repent for all their sins, seek atonement, and
fix everything they ever broke.
- Try to pull chi out of the air by breathing.
- Sleep with a Verbena, get her to grant them enlightenment, and GIVE AWAY their power.
- Find Cain, cure him of his curse, and break the
curse for everyone.
- Learn Ch'iuh Muh (or Saulot’s watered down
version)
- Fulfill their destiny, then let a Euthanatos kill
them (the permanent solution).
Maybe none of this will work, but maybe it will? Who knows.
I will say this. The Ascension War was fought over the notion that ALL humans were worth giving a shot at releasing the arbitrary confines of the realities that controlled them so as to engender a world where the possible was more powerful than the necessary. What if we shot too low? What if all entities, human, vampiric, or otherwise, were what we were supposed to be fighting for?
The Art of Force is the most essential sphere for any Mage who wishes to exert their will upon the universe. Forces is by far the most diverse sphere in my opinion. Creating shields, weapons, barriers, illusions, distractions, stealth, empowerment, disempowerment, and other potent effects – Especially when used in conjunction with others. The Apprentice learns to understand and perceive forces that are typically beyond their senses. Seeing or hearing outside their typical spectrum is no longer outside of capabilities. Initiates are given the ability to influence minor energy flows. Small manipulations allow for fantastic feats of elatrical disruptions, manipulating technology in a modern age has become much easier. Shielding is also a possibility. Sounds, lights, kinetic energy, gravitational pull, radiation, and many other forms of energy. Forces may be directed as forms of defense, offense, or neutralizing – simply one of the most versatile of the ‘basic’ spheres.
Disciples may freely transmute energies, further empowering ones’ ability to manipulate the world around them. Such feats of telekinesis and other such effects that bend the laws of physical reality are possible. Turning light into a kinetic pulse can make a flashlight a deadly weapon or a potent distraction. Unfortunately these manipulations are almost entirely vulgar, and paradox reacts more viciously to such blatant mutations.Adepts are able to control the same forces but on a much a larger scale and with more efficiency.
