What Shall We Say About Vampires?

76, 900,000! That's how many sites popped up as soon as I did a Google search on moon vampire! Wild! And weird. Girls can go to YouTube and see a demonstration on how to do makeup to look like
new moon vampire Jane. Everyone is invited to play Play Full Moon Vampire a Free Game at Fupa Games. Vampires ruled the night at the MTV Movie Awards. And on and on and on. 

What's this all about? Why the popularity and fascination with vampires and the moon?  Vampires are evil and evil fascinates. And these poor vampires need normal people. Even though they have their own doubts about killing and drinking blood, they still need us. They are lonely.

The exciting thing, especially for youth, is that they challenge established ways of thinking, organized religion, racial and class prejudices. They seem so wise and above the adults with their narrow ways. Vampires are beyond all that. They have no restrictions about monogamy or sexuality. Anything goes. They are the dark and powerful beings of the night.

What's more, vampires defy death; they are eternal and forever young. And so they attract youth who want to believe they too will or can, somehow, live forever.

Wikipedia says this of vampires,

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in many cultures, and may go back to "prehistoric times", the term vampire was not popularized until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe,[8]although local variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi inRomania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism. . . 

With the arrival of Christianity in Greece, and other parts of Europe, the vampire "began to take on decidedly Christian characteristics." As various regions of the continent converted to Christianity, the vampire was viewed as "a dead person who retained a semblance of life and could leave its grave-much in the same way that Jesus had risen after his death and burial and appeared before his followers." In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church reinterpreted vampires from their previous folk existence into minions of Satan, and used an allegory to communicate a doctrine to Christians: "Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself." The interpretation of vampires under the Christian Church established connotations that are still associated in the vampire genre today.[9]For example, the "ability of the cross to hurt and ward off vampires is distinctly due to its Christian association.

What does all this have to do with the Christian family that looks to the Bible for guidance and counsel? For the youth, grounded and secure in God's love and in the love of their parents, interest in such fantasy fiction as the Twilight series of books and movies may be harmless. They are able to sort out fantasy from reality. However, all preteens and teens are dealing with issues of identity, meaning, self-esteem and purpose in their lives. And they do not all come from healthy, spiritually mature families. Such kids are at great risk for developing unhealthy interests in the occult. Listen to what the Apostles say about Satan's use of such things and about the importance of filling our minds with God's word:

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. - 1Pe 5:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. -
Phl 4:8-9 ESV

Parents are well advised to take an active interest in their children's attraction to vampires and all the literature and movies related to the same. Read the books. Learn about them and the movies. Discuss what you learn with your kids and help them to see the problems and dangers. Above all, let them know that you care about them and want them to grow and develop in God pleasing ways.

More about this in my next post.

Nazism, Theosophy, Gnosticism and the Occult

I've been exploring some of the many roots of the Nazi movement—and there are many. One of these is Theosophy, a movement related to Madame H.P. Blavatsky and her book The Secret Doctrine. Thanks to Google, one can now read the entire 500 plus pages of this work online—if you're so inclined.

In her book Blavatsky claims to provide a synthesis of science, religion and philosophy. In the philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel and others, human knowledge unfolds by a process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. A thesis is a proposal such as that the world is flat. The antithesis is an objection. No, it cannot be. Take a look at the horizon falling away. So how do we bring these two together in some kind of synthesis? Since ancient times there were many methods, but please do not ask me to go into them.

By the way, there is a publisher that seeks to bring free digitalized textbooks into university learning systems. They call this Flat World Knowledge. No need any longer to keep knowledge from textbooks beyond the students' horizons. It can all be available on their desktops. Applause for the modern, digitalized world. But I'm off topic.

Back to Blavatsky and those who followed her lead. She claimed to take human knowledge to a new level. In New York City in 1875  Helena P. Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, William Q. Judge, and others founded the Theosophical Society. Blavatsky (1831-1891) is the primary force behind the modern theosophical movement. In October, 1879 she founded the journal The Theosophist.

What is theosophy? Below is an accurate definition provided by way of Our Lady's Warriors, a Roman Catholic organization.

Theosophy is essentially a modern version of Gnosticism. Within it one can find clear Gnostic, Pantheistic and occult influences, including Sophia. The new twist is the "space alien like," but clearly demonic connection whereby Theosophy was "delivered to the first human protoplasts, the first thinking human beings on Earth by highly intelligent spiritual entities from superior spheres." Some actually claim that various of these "ascended masters" have been living on Venus for some 18,000 years and will shortly return.

Theosophy made its way into Lutheran circles through Frederick Rittelmeyer. Rittelmeyer was a Lutheran pastor of a congregation in Berlin, who studied under Adolph von Harnack. Harnack was a history professor and a prominent leader of the higher critical movement that undermined confidence in the Bible as the revealed Word of God. He did not believe in the supernatural or in Biblical miracles.

In 1910 Pastor Rittelmeyer met Rudolf Steiner, a theosophist and founder of anthroposophy. Rittelmeyer wanted to modernize Christianity, bring it up to date with the new, synthesized knowledge. With Steiner's help, in 1922 he founded a renewal movement called the Christian Community, a kind of new age denomination active to the present day in the United States and other parts of the world.

When the Nazis took charge of Germany in the early 1930s, Rittelmeyer was able to perform a kind of balancing act that enabled his Christengemeinschaft (Christian Community) to survive. But then, both his movement and Nazism had its roots in the work of Blavatsky, so that was entirely possible.

There were other things going on in Germany, of course. I'll wander into them with you on another day.

Esotericism and My Third Novel

I learned a new word yesterday. Oh, I sort of knew what it was, but it helped to look it up on my dictionary: Esotericism - intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest: esoteric philosophical debates.


Let me explain how I got there. We're trying to figure out who might be interested in reading my third novel, Freya's Child, as we proceed toward publication. Since the bad girl in the book is a 'witch' or Wiccan priestess and a Nazi, I am searching for other books about Nazis. I discover a book and a series of documentaries made from it.

The Occult History of the Third Reich: This powerful and disturbing series uses rare original footage to tell a story that is as bizarre as it is horrific, and which casts new light on a national movement that came to see evil as a sacred task.

The author of the book the series is based on is Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Dr. Clarke is Director of the Centre for the Study of Esotericism. He is a professor of Western Esotericism at University of Exeter and author of several other books on esoteric traditions, including also Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth and Neo-Nazism. Savitri Devi was a true believer who took Nazism beyond politics. She believed that Hitler was an avatar or god come to earth. This Aryan Hindu prophetess became a guiding spirit of the international neo-Nazi movement.

There you have it, a new word and another insight into the Nazi movement, a movement that did not die with Adolph Hitler. By the way, did Hitler really commit suicide in his bunker? His body was never found. 

My Decision To Self-Publish

This past summer has been a time of transition for me. When Sylvia and I went to our vacation home in Colorado for two months I fully intended to devote a major chunk of my time to writing. As it turned out, that didn't happen. What did happen is a decision to move more deeply into self-publishing. For starters I decided to publish the third novel in what I call the Albert and Tillie series.

I decided to do this for a couple reasons. I've dropped a summary of this novel, Freya's Child, into the hands of a about three dozen editors. One after the other said he or she was not interested in representing me to the publishing world. My writing friends kept telling me to persist. Some wise agent would finally come along to represent me, they insisted. I decided to ignore their counsel. Let me tell you why.

What I am trying to do with this novel is unique in a sense. Albert Freitag, my protagonist, is forced to deal with the occult side of the Nazi movement, a side never or seldom portrayed in fiction. To date I have yet to find a novel that explores this issue. Hitler, Himmler and a large number of other Nazi leaders were committed to the overthrow of the Christian church and all it stands for. They sought to replace it with what they considered the real religion of the Aryan race.

Freitag, whose family name means Friday in English, has to question his own faith and his commitment to his wife and newborn daughter. He has to deal with a priestess devoted to this revived worship of ancient Nordic gods. Specifically, she is a devotee of the goddess Freya. The goddess Freya is the Nordic equivalent of Venus or Aphrodite among the Greeks and Romans. She is the goddess of love, family, home--and often war. Albert is forced by this priestess to question his belief in Christ and the entire Christian story. This confrontation goes to the very roots of his existence. Ironically, his last name, Freitag, points to that day in the week originally named after the goddess Freya. In fact, we seldom realize that every day in our week is named after one of the Nordic gods. But I get ahead of myself.

In my story Hulda Schwarz, the priestess, uses her wiles, her beauty, her seductive powers and her considerable contacts with demonic forces to draw Albert away, both from his beliefs and from his wife. The story question is whether he will be able to resist the temptation.

I have found no agents willing to represent me as I strive to surface these issues  in a world now removed by half a century from Nazism and what it represented. However, the gods are still with us! They have not left. They may have lost World War II. The mere humans they used to tear up and destroy the lives of millions are dead. But the gods live on, still ripping down and overthrowing Christian civilization to replace it with the same idolatry, bigotry, hatred, racial prejudice, pride, lust, lawlessness and greed they have always promoted.

Since I found no agent to represent me to the publishing world, I decided to do my own representing. I decided to work with a print-on-demand publisher and some marketing experts who will assist me in getting Freya's Child into print and into the hands of people interested in learning about the occult side of Nazis and the demonic forces that continue to war against everything we Christians have inherited and still believe in. 

Keep tuned for more about my journey in days to come.