Claudia Cunningham PVS: Practical Vampire Slayer

BITING BACK is founded on the spiritual principle (and well-documented vampire rule) that a vampire may not cross the threshold without first receiving an invitation from the host. Whether our vampires come in the shape of controlling ex-spouses or prying relatives, obnoxious coworkers or just our habitually critical friends, not one of them got into our lives without our permission, our say-so, or our invitation. 

Those are the rules.

 The Origin of Biting Back

 When I was a young alcoholic, still drinking and using drugs to survive, I was often required to endure hours and even days of relative sobriety.  These “dry” intermissions were regularly enforced, sometimes by my own determination, but more often by the provoking necessity of having to wait a reasonable length of time between drinking binges or prescription refills.      

During these stretches, my mind – minus the accustomed sedative – would skip and ricochet and tear around, threatening to itemize recent drunken events for me, or to consider their terrifying consequences.  My central nervous system, also without its usual anesthetic, was shaky and apprehensive.  It was a state of mind and body that required definite, forceful distraction.    

Television and radio were not sufficient to avert my distress, but I found that reading, especially the novels of Stephen King, was quite helpful.  There was one book in particular that was about vampires – ‘Salem’s Lot it was called, and that’s where I first heard about this business of having to invite a vampire in before it can suck your blood.    

I was sort of amazed by the idea, but even more amazed by the fact that I’d never heard about it before.  I mean, even in my drinking days I could see that knowledge of this invitation rule was probably valuable.   “At least,” I thought, “the next time a vampire shows up on my balcony in the middle of the night, I’ll know what not to do.”    

Years later, when I was finally ready to stop drinking, I stumbled over this invitation rule again – only this time it wasn’t in a book about vampires, it was in a program of recovery.  One of the first things I learned when I got there was that if I hoped to be sane and sober, I was probably going to have to change the way I looked at my life and its problems.  I learned that if I didn’t want to be drunk or crazy, I was probably going to have to start asking myself, each time I found myself in a mess, exactly what I had contributed to the creation of that mess.  That’s right, you heard me:  Even though it was obvious to anyone that I was having a terrible time and never, ever would have chosen to be in such misery, I was still expected to take some responsibility for how the mess had gotten there – almost as if I’d invited it in myself!    

And I just knew I’d heard that somewhere before. 

Biting Back (a.k.a. Practical Vampire Slaying) is founded on the principle (and well-documented vampire rule) that a vampire may not cross the threshold to feed without first receiving an invitation from the host.  Whether our personal vampires come in the shape of controlling ex-spouses or prying relatives, obnoxious coworkers or just habitually critical friends, not one of them got into our lives without our say-so, our permission, or our invitation.  Those are the rules.    

As practical slayers, we explore the vampire metaphor as it applies to the life-sucking vampires we invite into our lives and feed every day.  Here we’ll learn how to properly diagnose our vampires, how to recognize and acknowledge our invitations, and how to discover the clarity and language required to revoke our invitations with confidence and precision.    

If that’s what we choose to do, anyway; it all depends on what we feel we’re ready for.  Besides, there are lots of good reasons for keeping a vampire around, as we shall see.  And there are some alternatives to this “invitation revoking” business, too, in case we’re not quite ready for that.  Biting Back is'nt always about making the vampire go away, you know.    

Biting Back is about making informed, conscious, and therefore free choices about our own lives.  It’s about discovering the connection between taking responsibility for our invitations, and restoring our power to revoke those invitations.  It’s about the importance of getting clear with ourselves about who we are and what we want first – before we go rushing off to do battle with our vampires. 

And it’s about whittling the stake that works, whether or not we choose to use it.     

I can be reached here, at directly by email at practicalslayer(at)yahoo.com, or by posting comments at my blog THE PRACTICAL VAMPIRE SLAYER.  

I can also be reached in care of my publisher:

Llewellyn Worldwide

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125-2989