What exactly does being vdrl reactive mean?

Infection/Autoimmune: A reactive or positive VDRL test can occur in either active infection from syphilis or from the presence of an antibody that promotes clotting blood too readily. This latter consideration arises with so-called anti-phospholipid antibodies which may arise in autoimmune disease. One of these autoimmune diseases is lupus or "SLE" (systemic lupus erythematosus). Syphilis would not be the cause here.