BEFORE YOU CONTINUE...

You can also visit our online community Vampires Evolving. This community has been active for some time now. The texts that will be available here are online at Vampires Evolving.

Here for public viewing is the Order of Maidenfear. The Order began in Philadelphia, USA in 1966, and today is a network of more than fifty vampire houses in North America, South America, and Europe. Our efforts are aimed at vampires in cyberspace who may identify with what we're about but are unable or unwilling to join a house.

This is also here for the convenience of online Maidenfear members who might wish to consult what is essentially the heart and soul of the Order.

Maidenfear...perhaps it sounds a bit frightening and yet somehow alluring at the same time. It is an idea that captures--at least in part--the essence of that which is vampire. "Maidenfear" is a literary device meant to convey the nerves of a new virgin bride going to the marriage bed for the first time...or really the giddy anxiety of anybody about to taste love for the first time. This sanctuary was so named in 1970 after this romantic idea of mixing pleasure with fear of the unknown.

What is a vampire? There exists an entity of living energy all around us and in the universe. This energy is both alive itself and imbues all things with life of one degree or another. A vampire is an adept at energy play, an adept at tapping into this living energy for self-benefit. For some this is achieved through drinking blood, for others it is a matter of psychic living energy. A vampire knows how to take what energy they want and need and use it for their own purposes.

Over the years the vampires of the Order of Maidenfear have discovered nine kinds of vamprism--sanguinarianism, lifeforce, astral, elemental, erotic, thanatropic, chaotic, psychic amd electric--which overlap and compliment each other into a larger vampiric practice. Vampirism is the practice of one, or all of these devices, or of something entirely different, in order to make a circuit between ourselves and the object of energy, be it a donor or the living force of a wind gust.

You have journeyed and come upon this house and this online sanctuary founded in the practice of Pranic Vampirism. What is pranic? The word comes from the Sanskrit prana, meaning lifeforce. The pranic vampire is a creature who absorbs the energies of the living world--a creature of energy play. Blood is most often associated with vampires, and is of course a strong source of prana. But there are other ways of being a pranic vampire too, methods that involve the mind and mental ability.

Now we have realized just how vast and varied the vampire community is. Maidenfear wants to reach out to all our vampire family from all walks and persuasions. This is how the Raven Vampire Circus has come to be. It's the creation of Maidenfear, but vampires do not need any association with Maidenfear to participate.

We at Maidenfear do not claim to have the only true vampire way. In fact we are not a religion at all, but a sanctuary for all thought. The secrets you find here will be secrets hidden within yourself. We do not claim exclusivity to the term "pranic". Vampires are a free breed, and Maidenfear Sanctuary supports this independence by offering a gentle shelter for those of a like mind.

Read the texts offered here at your leisure. House Maidenfear has no absurd program of initiation. Generation teaches generation the discoveries of generations past. We believe that if you have come here, you have an inner drive and a reason to be here, and who are we to deny you that?

Please excuse us. We are in the middle of renovating our pages, so some of the color schemes won't match up. We are also working on putting up an glossary, our most recent house charter, a good links page, a suggested book list, and probably more. Thank you for your patience.

Again, welcome to Maidenfear. May you walk in the balance.