I heard rumblings along the inter-tracks about a religion based on the Twilight novels (and, I suppose, films), but a Google search just pulled up a bunch of pages that seem to stem from an Urban Dictionary post (wherein the original poster coined the term “Twiligion”).
The straighter-faced side of this stems from a thread at the forum Twilight Academy (which is inaccessible to non-members and no longer accepting new ones. They must have copped a lot of flack from Anti-Twilighters or “Antis”, as their opponents the “Twihards” call them). Calling their ideology “Cullenism” (after the lead vampire character, Edward Cullen and his vampiric ‘family’), it seems to have arisen when one of the posters half-jokingly suggested they cement their Twilight obsession by creating a religion based on the moral code followed by Edward and the Cullens (now THAT’S a bad emo band just waiting to happen). I’ll post some extracts here in full, because they’re no longer easily accessbile:
Just like any other religion, we have beliefs and values. Each belief may take on more importance for one person than it may for another, there is no wrong way to decide which beliefs are more important than others. So here are the main Cullenism beliefs, however, this list is not a limit to what you can believe in when it comes to the Cullenism religion, Cullenists are a welcoming and caring group of people, and we will accept any other Cullenism beliefs you may have!
These are our beliefs (in no certain order).
As a Cullenist we believe:
* Edward and the rest of the Twilight characters are real
* Stephenie Meyer is the (or one of the) best author(s)
* The twilight series should be worshiped
* If you are good in life, you will be bless with eternity with the Cullens, if you are bad in life, you will be sent to James’ cave
A later post added some more:
In the grand scheme of Cullenism, there are four gods and now four goddesses that we pray to; Edward, Bella, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rosalie, each god can (and probably will) have a different significance to each Cullenist. However, each Cullen god is unique in his or her own way.
Edward is the god of protection, chivalry and game.
Bella is the god of Insecurities, Closure and beginnings
Carlisle is the god of health and prosperity.
Esme is the god of care and compassion.
Jasper is the god of war, stradegy and educational pursuit.
Alice is the god of fashion, fun and love.
Emmett is the god of strength, friendliness and happiness.
Rosalie is the god of beauty and grace.In turn, each god/godess can be prayed to for different reasons, at differnt times, some, you may pray to regularly, others on occasion. Each god is equally as amazing as the next. There may be different reason you pray to a certain one, whether it’s because you’re part of their house, or because they’re your favorite Cullen, or perhaps it’s because you’re in need of their specific guidence.
*Each god/godess will eventually have their own lesson and a few prayers, feel free to pm me your suggestions!*
Hopefully, this was a resourceful and provided some good information. May the Cullens bless you, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall soft upon your fields.
It seems clear from this that the Cullenites approach this production with a certain amount of playfulness, and remain constantly self-conscious of the artificial origin of their system. There have even been attempts to establish a weekly “Twichurch“. From their page:
Christianity has grown exponentially from it’s beginnings, it has reached many people all over the world. If you have seen from personal experience then you can tell that some people have taken their religious beliefs to extremes, either within themselves or within their community. Some take it upon themselves to know every detail of the Bible,every single aspect of the religion. And then some just follow what they have been taught by others, they don’t think it even necessary to read further into it. There are ignorant people out there who don’t take the liberty in trying to find the true meaning behind their worship, but then there are people who find the meaning and enjoy it within themselves.
Twilight has reached a point like this. Ultimately we are going to be faced with many different people with very different aspects of their personality’s that view Twilight should be worshiped in different ways. Some people aren’t reader’s so they watch the movie, some people don’t like movie’s so they never even give the film a shot. It’s like celebrating your religion only at your home and not going to church or mass. That is perfectly fine to do. When someone believes in Jesus and chooses not to read the Bible, it is their own way of following their faith. Just as many other people will see Twilight in many different ways. They will either watch the movie, read the series, or skim over the books and watch the film. At the bottom line of it all, Twilight will be known through different mediums and the people of our planet will set forth and find the tellings of the story in different forms. Cullenism is growing.
Perhaps unsurprisingly – given the amount of hatred there is directed at the Twilight phenomenon and its comparable legion of teenaged fans – a Google search generates more hits for sites antithetical to Cullenism than those in favour of it. That said, there are some funny pictures out there. I found the above image on Anti site Frozen Sparkles.
[For a recent paper on Twilight and Mormonism, see: Massimo Introvigne 'New/Old Mormon Family Values: Italian Reactions to Big Love and Twilight', paper presented at the 2009 CESNUR Conference, Salt Lake City Utah, 12th of June, 2009:]