The History of Maidenfear

In 2016 we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Order of Maidenfear, fifty full years of vampire thought and philosophy.

If it seems difficult to be a vampire in this day and age, imagine how things were for our founder, Anne de Molay (1930-2002). Legend has it that she was a descendant of Jacques de Molay, the infamous last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, although she never made such a claim herself. All documentation supports that Anne de Molay was in fact her birth name.

In an era of horror film schlock, Anne investigated the archetype of the vampire and came to the conclusion that vampirism was a very real interaction with life energy that could benefit the practitioner. Having shared her vision, Anne was able to form a group of like minds and established the Order of Maidenfear in 1966.

Why “Maidenfear”? Why use a word with no obvious associations with vampirism to communicate the Order’s existence to the world? Anne wrote, “I came upon this term, and for some reason it struck me deep, it resonated within me. What a perfect concept, the nervous excitement of fear and desire captured in a single word. For me, this word was so replete with energy itself that I could see nothing else but to apply it in my own form of vampirism.”

In 1970, Anne inherited a generous amount of money after the passing of her father. She was about to turn 40, she was a history teacher, she had decided against having a family, and her one absorbing passion was the Order of Maidenfear. Anne invested in the future of her Order by buying a large Victorian house in Philadelphia, the building that became House Maidenfear. Dedicated to Anne’s vision of the vampiric life, vampires from the city and the Eastern seaboard came to live in House Maidenfear.

In council on the Summer Solstice of 1970, the Maidenfear vampires wrote and approved the Maidenfear Entente, a document which would be the constitution of Order operations. Additionally, a special shrine to the universal guiding force, called Raven, opened within the house. For the next twenty years, House Maidenfear and the Order operated in relative obscurity. After all, this was not a philosophy that everyone was ready to hear. Like minds found and joined the order.

Anne de Molay was the first Grand Master and remained in that position until 1987. Between 1988 and 1991, The Creed of the Kindred, The Call of Raven, The Line of Lilith, and The Pandect became important parts of Maidenfear wisdom.

2016 has brought us to something of a renaissance as we launch an online home of the Order to mark our fiftieth anniversary. We may be an older Order, but our philosophy is as relevant as ever.