Showing posts with label Religion/Spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion/Spirituality. Show all posts

Cutting his teeth: how Bram Stoker found his inner Dracula in Scotland

Author’s method acting approach to writing terrified local people in Aberdeenshire as he perched on the rocks like a bat.

In August 1894, at the end of a month-long stay to research his embryonic novel, Bram Stoker wrote in the visitors’ book at the Kilmarnock Arms on the Aberdeenshire coast that he had been “delighted with everything and everybody” and hoped to return soon.

According to new research, though, the feeling was not entirely mutual. Stoker, a genial Irishman usually known for his cheeriness, was experimenting with what would become known as “method acting” to get under the skin of his new character, one Count Dracula. Local historian Mike Shepherd, who has spent seven years researching Stoker, says the author’s links with the London theatre inspired Stoker to try inhabiting his character in a different way.

Anne Rice, Author and Screenwriter of ‘Interview With the Vampire,’ Dies at 80

Her nearly 40 novels published over a half-century sold some 135 million copies, placing her among the most popular fantasy writers of all time.

By Lisa de los Reyes for The Hollywood Reporter, December 12, 2021

Anne Rice at her home in Palm Springs, California, in 2010. She wrote like a time traveller, layering her novels with astonishingly evocative period detail. 

The Nephilim Theory: Creators of the First Vampire?


To begin with, there is no “theory” of the Nephilim, it is a fact that they did exist, as stated in the Old Testament. The “Theory” is that the Nephilim were the creators of the first Vampire. As a matter of opinion, I must admit that I agree. Let’s start from the beginning!

The Judas Origination Theory

There is a legend among the Hebrew people that tags Judas, betrayer of Christ, as the original vampire. We know from ancient texts that vampires were present on the earth prior to Jesus’ crucifixion, yet the legend is still quite intriguing.

Was Lilith the mother of the vampire race?


Lilith was said to have been the first mate to Adam, created by God from the dust of the earth, just as Adam. Because of this, she saw herself as his equal, Adam failed to see things the same way. After years of struggling between each other Lilith put and end to their marriage by refusing to submit to him and fleeing the Garden of Eden.

The Cain Vampire origination theory

 Both the modern day Bible and the Quran identify Cain as the first son born of Adam and Eve, his brother Abel being the second. Cain was said that have been a cultivator of the land while Abel was a shepherd. One evening Cain selected the finest of his harvest to present to God the Father as an offering. Abel also presented an offering, comprised of the finest calf of his flock and other choice cuts of meat from fatted calves among his herd. God found favor in Abel’s offering and showered praise down upon him, while no praise was given to Cain.

The Girl and the Vampire

Once in a village there were a girl and a youth who were deeply in love, their parents did not know, and when the relations of the youth approached the parents of the girl with a proposal of marriage they were repulsed because the youth was poor. So the young man hanged himself on a tree, and became a vampire. As such he was able to come and visit the girl. But, although the girl had loved the man, she did not much like to have to do with an evil spirit. What could she do to escape from danger and sin? She went to a wise woman, and this wise woman advised her what to do.

Vampires, Jesus Christ, And Parabiosis: Science Meets Blood Mythology In Search For Anti Aging, Longevity, And Immortality

What do vampires and Jesus Christ have in common? They both believe that drinking blood holds the key to immortality, although Christ was speaking metaphorically. Blood mythology dates back thousands, if not millions of years. Adherents to Christianity believe you must symbolically drink the blood of Jesus Christ in order to gain eternal life. The belief in vampire mythology is that the blood of a supernatural creature will spare you from immediate, human death.

Vampires and Garlic

Halloween.  That yearly tradition of kids dressing up as their favorite character all in order to gather copious amounts of candy from total strangers while their parents pull a wagon full of adult beverages.

We have a tradition of going over to some friends neighborhood that contains a lot more kids than our neighborhood and pull said wagon.   It is always a blast to see the costumes that the kids come up with – witches, werewolves, angry birds, and the assorted super hero.  Zombies also appear to be the “hot” character this year.  Every now and then you would see the classic vampire get up and that got me thinking about the whole vampires and garlic thing.  I mean why no garlic love from the Nosferatu?

Pantry Preventatives

Believe it or not, there are things that are common to most household kitchens that were once considered to be vampire-fighting ingredients.

Vampires - Succubi

I received an email, a while back asking me if I was disregarding Succubi as vampires or thinking the idea too far-fetched to even mention it. The fact is I just didn't really research the subject and couldn't write about something I didn"t know. Still today, I do not know much about it, but I will be using what little information I could gather on the Internet to talk about these creatures. Hope not to offend anyone with my lack of knowledge!


Vampires: The Real Thing

For the past two years or so, I have researched "real" vampires. The method of my research has been observance of and discussion with those people I have met who claim to be real vampires. I decided to heavily research this topic when an acquaintance of mine claimed to actually be a vampire. Since then, I have cultivated this relationship into a close personal friendship. She was my first contact into the world of vampires and has been my best research associate ever since. Special thanks to her and all the other vampires who have been kind enough to talk about this condition.

Now for the nitty-gritty of real vampires as I have observed them. I have been able to classify real vampires into several categories. These are as follows:


Why Vampires can Exist

There is a comparatively new science of symbols called semiotics which partly explains why humans can actually create something new under the sun.


Vampires

No creature haunting Western society's collective imagination has proven more enduring, more compelling, or more alluring than the vampire. But it was only with the his transformation from emaciated, plague-carrying "nosferatu" (literally, "not dead") to suave, sexually appealing anti-hero that the vampire's status as pop cultural icon was assured.


Satanism, Vampirism & Chthonic Traditions

Satanism and Vampirism get tied together in the public media stomach. Not everyone can tell Hunan from Mongolian, and both come off as "Chinese food" -- but a chef would never confuse the two. The same goes for Satanism and Vampirism: the two get confused (all Goths who have sickened at the question, "do you worship the devil?" raise your hands!), more often from the latter to the former, but occasionally in the other way as well. Especially if your Satan-wear happens to be predominantly black. But it's often true that every lie does contain a seed of truth, and many associations do have some kind of cultural root. It may in fact be the case that Vampires are a subset of the Satanic genus, albeit a minimal one.

Youth Vampire Culture: From the Darkness Toward the Light

As a growing number of youths in America begin to challenge the notion of inequality and repression, they are turning their heads away from the darkness of society's constraints and toward the light of the freedom of a vampire lifestyle. Vampires today symbolize power and life for many youth, including Asian Americans.

The idea of what is a vampire has changed across time. As legend has it, vampires are creatures of the night, damned for eternity to feed on the blood of the living for survival, feared and hated by the world. If this is the legend of vampire, how did their image change over the years? To understand the evolution of vampires, you must first look at its very beginnings.


Vampyrism and the Walking of Paths

The purpose of this writing is to discuss the vampyric condition and its relation to spirituality. It would seem self evident that vampyrism is a condition of the spirit/soul/Qi or whatever you wish to call it. Some would suggest a physical reason for vampyrism and there are documented medical conditions that would suggest vampyric behavior, but those patients are clearly not vampyres. That debate, however, is for another time. Regarding spirituality, it would seem that there is a fair amount of pressure in the community at large to drive those who are vampyres to embrace the left hand path regardless of the individual’s personal belief systems. The right hand path is not necessarily looked down upon, but is generally felt to be the weaker of the paths in relation to vampyrism.


The Bloody Gospel

Christ of the Vampires

Christ of the Vampires is a Bible study that concerns parallels and differences between Vampirism and Christianity. It is my intention to prove that Jesus is the real Christ of the Vampires. The Bible study will probably shock both Christians and non-Christians alike. So read with an open mind.


Introduction to Cinematic Vampires

For almost ninety-five years, from THE DEVIL'S CASTLE (1896) to BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992), the vampire has freely stalked movie theatres and preyed upon the willing patrons of over three hundred films. Though his origins may have been lost in the cave etchings of primeval mythology, obscured by the superstitions of folklore, or exploited by the "penny-dreadfuls" of Victorian melodrama, the vampire has remained a popular subject for motion pictures and television.


In the age of ignorance

Throughout history the legend of the vampire has been used to "explain" other natural phenomena that primitive people who lacked scientific knowledge could not otherwise explain. Possibly the most astonishing belief which people associated vampires with was the Black Death during the Middle Ages in Europe.


Origin of Lilith

We dunno what you've heard. You could have heard Lilith is a model for Oppressed Womanhood. You could have heard she's a succubus who gives men wet dreams. You could have heard that she's a demoness who murders babies. You could have heard that she's a goddess, the wife of Death.



Lilith: From Demoness to Dark Goddess

Lilith: Queen of the Night, Mother of Demons, First Wife of Adam, and one of my own patron Goddesses. Unfortunately, I have found that modern authors often leave much to be desired on the subject of Lilith. Modern interpretations of Her nature are presented as historical, and the historical facts themselves are regularly misrepresented. Does She originate in ancient Sumeria, a maiden connected to the Temple of Inanna? Was She once a benevolent Mother Goddess Herself, later demonized by patriarchal religious leaders? Is it female strength She embodies, or has She persecuted women for centuries via birth complications and crib death? Was she actually deleted from the story of Eden? These are some of the questions, myths, facts, and errors that will be covered in this essay- hopefully laying to rest the many misconceptions that surround this ancient and powerful figure.


Christianity and Vampirism

Long before the Christian church began to unfold its wings throughout Europe, the vampire was an established myth. Vampire-like creatures had been a part of superstition since ancient Greece. The roots of the vampire were Pagan in nature, and the beliefs were widespread. The relationship that eventually formed between vampires and the Christian God is a tale riddled with irony.



In The Blood: A serious look at vampire-myth origins

Part One

For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. (Leviticus 17:11)

Any broad exploration of pre-Industrial European society cannot help but touch upon the plethora of peasant tales that both served to entertain the populace and teach morality to the children of Europe. On surface examination, at least, this function of folklore seems apparent enough. It is a perfectly valid assessment of the function of common fable--but in many respects, it is inadequate. Peasant tales served, in many cases, as more than simple fables. The fact that the vast bulk of European humanity remained illiterate in pre-Industrial Europe should stimulate questions about the more complex and subliminal purposes of this entirely oral form of literature.


Vampire Hunter's Guide

Over the ages, certain artifacts have gained a reputation among popular cultures as ways to ward off, or even kill, vampires. This guide takes you through the historical meaning and reasoning behind the ways we've found to hunt the vampire. So grab your crucifix, and wade on in!



Coffins

Early mythological vampires did not sleep in coffins. Up until the 19th century, only the very rich could afford coffins, and so much of the history of vampires did not include a 'secured' burial - indeed, it was the very precarious nature of medieval burial that fostered the fear that vampires could very easily rise from their final resting place in the earth.


Vampire Creation Myths

Cain and Lilith

This myth begins at the very creation of man. Lilith, according to Hebrew/Jewish texts, was the first woman created for Adam.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.

Genesis 1:27-28


The Vampire and Holy Symbols

Did you know?

In the late 1400s, Pope Innocent VIII released a treatise recognizing the phenomena of incubi and succubi, male and female nocturnal demons. In the mid-1700s, Christian Monks wrote about various beliefs in the Undead that had developed in Western Europe, with hopes of dispelling the stories as superstition. These books of accumulated tales were available to the population at large, and the Undead within - previously known by any number of terms - were systematically named 'vampire'. As a result, the term vampire, vampyr, vampyre, wampire or wampirus - and all it's other translations - has become a household name (probably not the Monks' initial intention ...).


Belief systems and vampyrism

I've met Christian vampires, Buddhist vampires, Atheist vampires; I've met individuals who have worked their entire world view completely around their vampirism and others who refuse to acknowledge that it even manifests in their lives. The majority of individuals I've met (both through the internet and otherwise) fall into a different category though. They are unsure of how vampirism and their belief system can ever mesh.


Jewish Vampirology

The Blood Is the Life

"The blood is the life", states the Torah, and also declares "the life-force of all creatures resides in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). Eating blood is strictly forbidden by the Torah. Yet if one were to do so, he would acquire some measure of the semi-spiritual nature of the demons. They are not truly spiritual, since they must eat blood to live; yet they are not strictly bound to physical matter, insofar as they possess the power of invisibility, and the ability to travel great distances quickly. These are precisely the attributes ascribed to vampires! As the Sforno explains (Leviticus 17:7):


Creatures of the Night

There is no known culture on this planet that has not at one time or another cowered in fear because of the savage attacks of a nocturnal predator known as a therianthrope, a human-animal hybrid such as a werewolf, "werebear," "werelion," or a "were-something." Such creatures were painted by Stone Age artists more than 10,000 years ago and represent some of the world's oldest cave art—and they probably precipitated some of the world's first nightmares.


Vampyric Myths and Christian Symbolism: The Love Story of Bram Stoker's "Dracula"

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror we are still just able to bear
Rainer Maria Rilke: "The Duino Elegies"


In this paper, I will present my reflections and thoughts on the myth of Dracula in particular, and the vampyre in general, as a love story and show the deeply rooted links between the two myths and Christianity, as refracted through the prism of Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Lilith, the first Eve

According to Rabbinical mythology, the Talmudists say that Adam had a wife before Eve, whose name was Lilith. Refusing to submit to Adam, she left Paradise for a region of the air. She still haunts the night as a spectre, and is especially hostile to new-born infants. Some superstitious Jews still put in the chamber occupied by their wife four coins, with labels on which the names of Adam and Eve are inscribed, with the words, “Avaunt thee Lilith!” The fable of Lilith was invented to reconcile Genesis i with Genesis ii. Genesis i represents the simultaneous creation of man and woman out of the earth; but Genesis ii represents that Adam was alone, and Eve was made out of a rib, and was given to Adam as a helpmeet for him.