VAMPCULT

The Modern Vampire Fantasy

My older brother was fascinated by vampire folklore. As with sightings of ghosts, the vampire mythos is a well documented phenomenon. Our research into beings that live off the blood of other creatures was, to everyone else anyway, a natural teen cult obsession, which helped reintroduce my naturalized personality outside hospital walls. No longer under the cloud of the drugs, I was able to navigate through the mental health system – a feat I challenge anyone who thinks they’re “sane” to manage without a first diagnosis.

Secretly goth, we began to explore the occult world around us. From very early on, we developed a simple principle that applied to all the material we gathered for study; what we think we know only exists within a bubble of all that we don’t know.

Naturally, as anyone looking beyond the fictionalized modern version of Dracula, we began to learn the subtle changes to the lore, and soon began to categorize behavior and so-called vampire attributes. Vlad the impailer? Kids stuff, thousands of years after demonic beings freely roamed the earth.

Many others throughout history have been associated with vampires, and of course there is the “vampire disease” porphyria - but these are tales of those born human becoming infected with demon blood. Like, where do vampires come from? Lillith. Adam’s first wife and one of the oddly metaphysically supernatural passages of Hebrew legend seems to imply that humans co-existed with demons in a “time before time” so to speak, the beginning of human kind (see: NOTES)

• Even the Bible fails to give an accurate timeline, and it really doesn’t even try. In ancient times, formal calendars changed frequently according to rule.

Though not a common entry in today’s revised editions of biblical lore, Lillith and her demons had some kind of gang rape scene with her ex and his new sweetie, Eve, both spawning demons as a result. Demon babies! Spooky.

• At the risk of offending those of religious conviction, I should mention that historic text is written in a dead language, that Hebrew characters have evolved over an eon, and with such passage of time and even the most subtle shifts in translation dramatically changes the original meaning. Mysticism is widely accepted in these times, yet by today’s standards a burning bush is just a burning bush.

It would stand to reason that if “all peoples” come from “God’s” alpha-couple, then somewhere at some time there must exist an “unnatural” generation of hybrids bubbling with supernatural dark energy from the earliest stages of the universe as we know it. Without any significant data to back up with hypothesis, my brother and I began our own field research, leaving ink bound accounts behind us and living the life firsthand. Quickly sucked into “VampCult” (our clever little term for today’s modern fictionalized version of vampire lore), my older bro became a blood drinking creature of the night. In a kind of way.

VampCult embraces romantic aspects of the mythos and live according to standard, modern and fictional “Dracula rules” – avoiding sunlight, garlic, holy water, steaks through the heart, etc., with some intense focus on blood as part of sexual gratification. These groups can be very convincing and my brother thought becoming a vampire would make a good experiment, and being more mature, there are other aspects within the set of circumstances that I’d rather not discuss in conjunction with him. Nobody wants to think of their sibling as a sex slave. I got him away from the faux house of vampires ASAP.

All is well, except his occasional lust for warm blood. That’s sort of meant as a joke. He maintains an identity within the community, and I would often tag along back in the days before PSI.

I’ve found that most vamps could figure out my deal right away, the brightly beaming witch standing beside the dude wearing glasses and fangs. When asked, I’d generally deny or significantly downplay my connection with the spirit world. Some might argue that true witchcraft taps into the same forces as E.S.P., but I strongly disagree. To the best that I can describe, my enhanced senses are natural, innate abilities; I’m just able to perform them much better than most. The Dark Arts work to shift the very fabric of nature – reality – itself. This is paranormal versus supernatural.

If, for the sake of argument, vampires do exist, would it be wise to call attention to themselves?

Wouldn’t it make much more sense to allow folklore and modern movie mythology create a false identity for the public? What are those rules again – sunlight, mirrors, fire breath?

Only the most advanced underground vampire societies are founded on accurate historical information, but again, it could be a very well played fantasy, this “living vamp” is a human who simply acts as a vampire. Accounting for potential E.S.P. or knowledge of witchcraft, these modern ghouls could be your neighbor or close relative.

A real blood sucking demon beast? Well, that’s another story...

p.s. -- sorry I haven't been able to follow up on my last entry for so long, I had a little run in with a tempermental gang of goblins that were setting fires in Wichita, Kansas. I was able to privde evidence that cleared arson charges against a 14-year old boy and two of his friends.


//SALEM (coming soon)

//WICCA (coming soon)

NOTES

History of the Vampire Mythos
The following represents a composite of notes on the topic of vampirism, unable to cite all sources based on various conditions of notes when transcribed.

THE BLOOD
Interesting Characters & History

Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers, vampire historian (1880-1948, last book published in 1950)

Dom Augustin Calmet, a French Roman Catholic biblical scholar and the most famous vampirologist of the early eighteenth century.

Abraham Van Helsing, a philosopher, metaphysician, and advanced scientist that appeared in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)


Lilith, the Spirit of Darkness. Old Hebrew legend, appears in the bible [Adam’s first wife, rejected him over battle of sexual dominance]

“After Adam and Eve (his second wife) were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Lilith and her cohorts, all incubus/succubus [demon], attacked them, thus causing Adam to father many demons and Eve to mother still more. Out of this legend, Lilith came to be regarded in Hebrew lore as the mother of evil, and men were warned against sleeping in a house alone least Lilith overtake them.”

--Encyclopedia of the Undead




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ORIGINS: Ancient Persia & Babylon

The vampires we are familiar with today, although mutated by fiction and film, are largely based on Eastern European myths. The vampire myths of Europe originated in the Far East, and were transported from places like China, Tibet and India with the trade caravans along the silk route to the Mediterranean. Here they spread out along the Black Sea coast to Greece, the Balkans and of course the Carpathian Mountains, including Hungary and Transylvania.

Vampire stories may go back many centuries [perhaps the beginning of mankind], but their modern form arose after an outbreak of vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1725-1734 in central Europe.

• Western scholars seriously considered the existence of vampires for the first time rather than just brushing them off as superstition. Two famous cases involved Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole. Plogojowitz died at the age of 62, but came back a couple of times after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the next day. Soon Plogojowitz returned and attacked some neighbors who died from loss of blood. In the other famous case Arnold Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who had been attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death people began to die and it was believed by everyone that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbors.

• There are only three species of vampire bats in the entire world, all of which occur in Central and South America. During the 16th century the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with them and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their mythical vampires.

• Countess Elizabeth (Erzebet) Bathory – Used to bathe in the blood of young girls (arrested on December 26, 1620) Most of her adult life was spent in the Csejthe Castle. Erzsebet married Count Ferenc Nadasdy. She assumed the duties of managing the Nadasdy estate. Her level of cruelty to servants was legendary. She did not just punish infringements to her rules, but found excuses to inflict punishments. She delighted in the torture and death of her victims. The accusations that she bathed in the blood of the girls and had also bitten into their flesh [cannibal?] attained her title of vampire.

• Dracula ruled as Prince of Wallachia on three separate occasions. He first claimed the throne with Turkish support in 1448. On this occasion he ruled for only two months (November-October) before being driven out by a Danesti claimant supported by Hungary. Dracula dwelt in exile for several years before returning to Wallachia to kill the Danesti prince, Vladislav II, and reclaim the Wallachian throne with Hungarian support. Dracula's second regal period stretched from 1456 to 1462. It was during this time that Dracula carried out his most famous military exploits against the Turks and also committed his most gruesome atrocities. In 1462 Dracula fled to Transylvania to seek the aid of the King of Hungary when a Turkish army overwhelmed Wallachia. Instead of receiving the assistance he expected the Hungarian king imprisoned Dracula. He remained a prisoner of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary for several years. For most of the period of Dracula's incarceration his brother, Radu the Handsome, ruled Wallachia as a puppet of the Ottoman sultan. When Radu died (ca. 1474-1475) the sultan appointed Basarab the Old, a member of the Danesti clan, as prince. Eventually, Dracula regained the favor and support of the Hungarian king. In 1476 he once again invaded Wallachia. His small force consisted of a few loyal Wallachians; a contingent of Moldavians sent by his cousin Prince Stephen the Great of Moldavia, and a contingent of Transylvanians under their prince, Stephen Bathory. The allies succeeded in driving Basarab out of the country and placing Dracula on the throne (November 1476). However, after Dracula was once again in control, Stephen Bathory returned to Transylvania taking most of Dracula's army with him. The Turks soon counterattacked with overwhelming force. Dracula was killed fighting the Turks near Bucharest in December of 1476. His head was sent to Constantinople where the Sultan had it displayed on a stake to prove that the terrible Impala was really dead.

• Gypsies arrive in Romania a short time before Vlad Dracula is born (1431) archaeological evidence points to constant settlement in Transylvania from at least the Stone Age. Gypsies originated as nomadic tribes in northern India, but got their name from the early belief that they came from Egypt. By 1000 AD they started spreading westward and settled in Turkey for a time, incorporating many Turkish words into their Romany language. By the 14th century they were all through the Balkans and within two more centuries had spread all across Europe.

• In China during the 6th century BC, traces of the "Living Dead", or revenants as they are known, were also found. More legends continued throughout the entire world, including India [The most famous Indian vampire is Kali who had fangs, wore a garland of corpses or skulls and had four arms. Her temples were near the cremation grounds. She and the goddess Durga battled the demon Raktabija who could reproduce himself from each drop of blood spilled. Kali drank all his blood so none was spilled, thereby winning the battle and killing Raktabija.], Malaysia, Polynesia and the lands of the Aztecs and Eskimos. According to the Aztecs, the offering of a young victim’s blood to the Gods ensured the fertilization of the earth. But truly, the vampire proper originates from European civilization...ancient Greece to begin with.

There were numerous bloodthirsty Goddesses in both Roman and Greek mythology, known as Lamiae, Empusae and Striges. These names eventually evolved into the general terms for Witches, Demons, and Vampires. But these Vampires, though they do drink blood, were only Goddesses...not "living Dead", but disembodied divinities capable of taking on human appearances so that they might seduce their victims.

The history of the vampire begins in ancient Persia, where a vase was discovered depicting a man struggling with a huge creature which is trying to suck his blood. Then, in Babylonian myth a deity known for drinking the blood of babies, Lilitu or "Lilith", was discovered. She was reputedly the first wife of Adam according to old Hebrew texts removed from the Old Testament, and left her husband due to his sexual ineptitude, becoming the Queen of Demons and Evil spirits.

Lilith was described as Adam's first wife. They had a disagreement over who would be in the dominant position in sexual intercourse. When Adam insisted on being on top, Lilith used her magical knowledge to fly away to the Red Sea, an abode of demons. She took many lovers and begat Lilum. There she met three angels sent by God -Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof- with whom she worked out an agreement. She claimed vampiric powers over babies, but agreed to stay away from any babies protected by an amulet that bore the name of the three angels.

The oldest known document with a reference to a vampire like being is a @2400 BCE tablet known as "The Sumerian King List", a very boring list of all the kings of Sumer, their paternal lineage, and the years of their rule. One entry is for the famous King Gilgamesh. It says that Gilgamesh's father was a Lillu. In Sumerian myth, there were a number of beings who, like the incubi and succubi [q.v. 2.03], come to sleeping individuals to mate with them. Lillu is an incubus (male). One of the succubi was Lilake/Lilitu, whom some claim is a forerunner of Lilith.

But not even Sumer can be definitively credited as coming up with the first vampire. Why? Because Sumer is also the first civilization to develop cuneiform, a form of writing which uses word sounds rather than pictures. Consequently, there are no written histories prior to Sumer.


It is said that to destroy a vampire, a stake was driven through the body followed by decapitation and placing garlic in the mouth. By the 19th century people were shooting a bullet through the coffin. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and given to family members as a cure.


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Sightings of the Chupacabra [from Spanish "chupar" (to suck) + "cabra" (goat)] gained worldwide attention in the mid-1990s, but chupacabras have been around since the 1960s. After some 40 years, however, no one has yet photographed or caught a chupacabra, live or dead.

Cryptozoologists (scientists who study animals which may or may not be real) have placed the chupacabra right up there with Bigfoot and Loch Nessie but have found no evidence to confirm or deny its existence. Locals think the chupacabra is some sort of genetically-engineered bat or other experimental animal which got loose. Skeptics blame something more normal, such as dogs, coyotes, wolves, or pumas. But one thing is certain. There are hundreds of photos of livestock carcasses that have been drained of blood with no bodily damage other than two puncture wounds in their necks.

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Stories of men turning into beasts go back to antiquity. In parts of ancient Greece, werewolf myths, stemming from prehistoric times (based on new evidence), became linked with the Olympian religion. In Arcadia, a region plagued by wolves, there was a cult of the Wolf-Zeus. Mt. Lycaeus was the scene of a yearly gathering at which the priests were said to prepare a sacrificial feast that included meat mixed with human parts. According to legend, whoever tasted it became a wolf and could not turn into a man unless he abstained from human flesh for nine years.

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