From Antiquity to your T.V.: Ancient Mysticism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Academic paper focusing on the ancient religious influences on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

When you name a television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can expect a few raised eyebrows.  A title like that doesn't lend itself to much scholarly respect.   However, due to the occult nature of the show, it has drawn many followers.  Many are interested in the mythology of the show, which over the years has become more and more complex and complicated.  However, a good deal of the mystical aspects of the show are inspired by ancient beliefs in the occult. The myriad of demons, the witches and magic, and ferocious vampires all have some basis in ancient myths.

       The major focus of the Buffyverse is, of course, vampires.  The vampires that appear in Buffy have little in common with the first vampire-like creature, Lamia.  The theme of eating a lover is common in Greek lore, but does not specifically point to vampirism (Luck, 170).   Belief in vampires came through folklore with the onset of various plagues in Europe.  “Folkloric vampires were simple creatures, driven to prolong their own unnatural lives by draining the lives of others, tormenting their families and neighbors with a variety of mischief, until their nocturnal adventurings were halted by the destruction of their corpses in the traditional manner: staking, decapitation, and burning” (DeKelb-Rittenhouse, 143).   Christopher Golden recounts the ancient basis of vampires in The Watcher’s Guide:

 

              The legend of vampires has existed, in one form or another, as long
              as there have been

 legends. From China to Ireland- in nearly every 
               region of the world- there is some version of the vampire legend. 
               There are those who believe that Biblical references to  'screech 
                owl' are actually comments about vampirism, since the
                word in Latin, strix, also means 'vampire'. The myths existed in 
                ancient Babylon, and references have been found 
                 in ancient Assyrian and Chaldean tablets. (Golden, 124)

 

The vampires of Buffy fit this basic profile.  Angel reveals to Buffy in the episode “Angel” that he “offered an ugly death to everyone that [he] met”, including his family, their friends, and their friend’s children.  Vampires are the outcasts of the Hellmouth, neither human nor demon, but a hybrid of both.  Buffy explains it to Ford in “Lie to Me”: “Well I’ve got a newsflash, braintrust. That’s not how it works. You die. And a demon sets up shop in your old house. And it walks and talks and remembers your life, but it's not you." 

    Demons are Buffy’s other main enemy.  Several demons on Buffy are direct nods to archaic gods, demons, and even fairy-tales.   Season five of Buffy features Glory, a fashion conscious and severely bi-polar woman, who is later revealed to be a hell god.  She ruled with two other hell gods.  This is reminiscent of almost every tale of hell and it’s various gods, especially Christian myths which turned all the gods of “pagan” nations into hell gods or demons. (Luck, 164)

     Surprisingly, vampires and demons, although the focus of the show, are overshadowed by the use of magic and magical influences on Buffy.  In fact, the basic idea of the show is taken from an ancient magic cult, known as the Manichees.  The Manichees were a religious sect in the third- to fifth-centuries, "for whom the cosmos is a site of an endless dualistic battle between good and evil" (Krzywinska, 180).  This Manichean belief is central to the mythology ofBuffy.  This idea of good and evil is put to use in episodes such as "Doppelgangland", which features both a good Willow and an evil, vampire Willow.  Nearly every main character has their evil side: Buffy has appeared as a vampire, Xander has been both a vampire and possessed by a hyena, Oz spends three days out of the month as a werewolf, etc.  The character of Angel can even be considered a microcosm of Manichaeism: “a demon and his own sould reside in him, one of which is dominant at a given time” (Krzywinska, 181)

    Apart from the Manichean ideas, the other major ancient magical influence in the show is Willow's involvement in magic. Originally, the series focused on demons, vampires, and the like, but soon Willow became interested in magic.  As her involvement in the ancient religion of Wiccanism grew, so did the involvement of magic in the show.   In the episode "Hush", the audience sees Willow attending a "Wicca group" at her university.  This scene shows how much the idea of magic and Wicca has changed over the years.  Willow expects to find other magic doers in the group, but instead she finds that they are a "Bunch of blessed-wanna-be's" and are all talk and no action.  The kind of magic Willow practices is much closer to the archaic idea of magic and spells, a darker form much more powerful than the simple goddess worship of the college group.  Willow's magic is removed from religion altogether; she never invokes the names of deities in her spells, and never performs spells in a ritualistic fashion.  “Rather, the magic in Buffy is more in tune with a particular early modern type of magic, the kind that would involve chanting Latin, invoking spirits or demons, requiring exotic ingredients, talismans, or other magical objects.  Another major difference is that Wicca is unmistakably goddess-oriented, while the only specific reference to goddess (outside the Wiccan group) in the magic of Buffy is when Amy (daughter of the witch from episode #3) invokes Diana and Hecate in her love spell (“Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”) (Winslade).

     Many references to ancient gods and goddesses are made through spells and invocations.  There are also some references to other interesting events in the history of witchcraft, such as the Salem witch trials.  In the episode "Gingerbread", the adults of Sunnydale turn vigilante after the discovery of two young murdered children.  Assuming pagan cults to be the culprit, the newly formed MOO (Mothers Opposed to the Occult) attempts to eradicate the occult from their town by burning their children at the stake.  The persecution of the unknown is a popular theme in Buffy, which has even included a reference to the Maleus Maleficarum (Giles keeps a copy in his private library).

   Buffy itself has an intense and complicated mythology, full of prophecies.   Most of the prophecies that come to light on the show are written on an archaic manuscript or in one of Giles' books; however, the dreams of a slayer also prophesize what is to come.  According to Luck, "Physical and mental sickness may be considered a borderline condition which allows the body to release certain powers that it does not normally possess" (Luck, 232).  After a violent fight, both Buffy and the "other" slayer, Faith, are in the hospital.  Their unconscious allows the two minds to meet, and they dream together. Apart, they usually have prophetic dreams, but when the two come together, they seem to have the power to see farther into the future.  These dreams prophesize the death of Buffy, "Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0" ("Graduation Day").  730 indicated the number of days Buffy has to live, or two years.  Two years later Buffy does indeed die, killing herself to save the world.  Even when Buffy awakes from her Coma, she and Faith are still linked, due to Faith's unconscious state.  In "This Year's Girl", Faith and Buffy share a dream again, this time the major prophecy is the coming of Buffy's little sister Dawn (who will not appear until "Buffy vs. Dracula", two seasons later). (Keller, 166-173)

      The writers of Buffy seem well-versed in matters of ancient occultism.  The depth and intensity of Buffy mythology draws viewers from all over the world, showing the interest the world has in occult matters.  Without such a well thought out mythology, Buffy would simply be another fantasy/horror show with random monsters and evils. Buffy’s staying power seems to be dependent on the creative efforts of its writers, who make sure they know what they are doing.