~The Buffy Underworld:KISSING DAYLIGHT~

Vampir, Vampyr (Eastern Europe)...

The word vampire (or vampyre) entered the English language in 1732, according to The Oxford English Dictionary, perhaps derived from the Turkish word for witch, uber, and transformed in Slavic languages as upior, upir, upyr, and penultimately, vampyr and vampir. Other names of vampires or vampirelike creatures are; LAMPIR (Bosnia), VOPYR (Russia), VETELA (India) and UPIOR (Poland).

A Different Vampire Story;

Astral Body- An ethereal counterpart to the physical human form described in many occult traditions, the astral body is believed to contain the spirit - self and physically seperates itself from the heavy body in the course of such phenomena as astral projection. In certain explanations of vampirism, the corpse itself does not reanimate, but instead send forth an astral double which carries blood back to the grave to replenish the vampire's physical body. In this way, the incorporeal vampire can pass through door cracks, keyholes and other humanly impossible tasks. However, the theory does not explain how blood itself is dematerialized at the site of the attack and later reconstituted in the grave.

Aurelia- a tale derived by E.T.A. Hoffman. Aurelia, a young women, having been driven mad by her mother, shuns ordinary food and begins to feast on corpses.

Autovampirism- The drinking of ones own blood, for sexual pleasure or as an adjunct to self-mutilation.

Bat, The- The most important link to the vampire myths is the bat. It attacks its victims during sleep. It seeks out a warm place where the skin is unprotected and the blood supply, copious-and there painlessly opens the skin with a pair of razor-sharp incisors. The bat's saliva contains an anticoagulant, which keeps the blood flowing for the length of the meal. FREUD tells us that to dream of flying demons (as bats are perseved) is to dream of forbidden sexuality - a powerful componant of the vampire stories.

Bat Thorn- A fictional plant, similar to wolfsbane, offering protection against vampires.

Blood- In many traditions, is believed to absorb and transmit evil; the removal of blood from the body, therefore, can often provide a cathartic cleansing.

Candle- The favourite prop of a vampire as it creeps throughout the night. The candle is a symbol of human life and its finite span, and simultaneosly and emblem of survival and transcendence. The flame represents spiritual illumination, faith, or esoteric knowledge. Of course, the person who follows the vampire's way of knowledge soon finds his or her own life flickering - and likely extinquished.

Catholicism- During the reign of Pope Innocent III in 1215, the Roman Catholic Church formalized the dogma of transubstantiation - the belief that the body and blood of Christ were physicially present in the communion wafer and wine used in the celebration of mass. Thus, the essential act of vampirism - the literal drinking of human blood.

Christianity- Blood communion, death, and resurrection are central to both the Christian faith and the conventions of vampire belief.

Cross- The symbol of Christ's crucifixion is one of the best known of all vampire repellents, but the rules and regulations governing its use are sometimes confusing and contradictory. As a symbol of the faith of the person using it, the cross should, therfore, offer little protection to the unfaithful.

Garlic- In vampire stories, garlic affords protection against the undead when worn wreathed around the neck, festooned on doors, or rubbed around windows and entrances. Garlic is, medically, known for its blood-purifying and immune-boosting properties.

Lamia- A female demon of classical antiquity, the lamia is a sexual predator thought to be half women and half serpent. The Lamia is a clear prefiguration of the modern female vampire.

Nosferatu- A meaningless word widely believed to be a Romanian term for "vampire," but which in fact does not exist in Romanian or any other language. The word is said to derive from the Romanian adjective nesuferit, from the Latin "not to suffer."

Stake, wooden- On a literal level, the stake is a physicial means of pinning the vampire to its grave; on a more metaphorical plane, the stake is a phallic symbol which makes clear the displaced, transformed sexuality of vampire beliefs in general. The vampire, in other words, is a kind of symbolic sex itch that can be destroyed/dispelled by a symbolic act of sexual penetration.

Werewolf- In European folklore, the images of vampire and werewolf often blur, but in the twentieth century they have evolved into discrete entities. The werewolf can be killed by silver bullets, and a vampire by stake. Werewolves have tended to attach themselves more to the Jekyll/Hyde formula than to vampire tradition.

Zombie- A mindless, animated corpse, or living person dehumanized and enslaved by black magic, and orginally a fixture of Haitian folklore. The characteristics of the cannibal zombie overlap considerably with that of the traditional vampire - they both rise from the grave to bite the flesh of the living, who subsequently become infected with the curse of living death themselves.

Zotz- The ancient Mayan word for "bat." Zotziha, or bat house, was believed to be one of the regions of the underworld through which a dying man had to pass on the way to the depths of the earth. This kingdom of darkness was inhabited by the Vampire Bat God or Death Bat called "Camazotz" who decapitated his victims.

Count Vlad and Dracul, the Devil...
The murderous prince who will live in legend forever.
In the 1500's there lived a ruler known as Vlad the Impaler.
A charming fellow, Vlad. He impaled his enemies by the thousands, and sometimes washed down his meals with their blood. (Thus, he became known as a "vampire".)
Stories of his cruelty abound. He is said to have skinned alive unfaithful lovers and when two visiting ambassadors refused to remove their hats, Vlad ordered the hats nailed to their heads.
In the 1890's, a British writer came across the story of Vlad, and was inspired to create one of the darkest characters of all time.
Vlad's father was known as Dracul, the Devil. Vlad was the son of the devil. Dracula.

Of Black Cats and Witches...
The unlucky black cat… how did he get such a "dark" reputation?
In ancient Egypt, cats were considered divine.
Early Christians trying to stamp out pagan worship turned the tables on cats, suggesting they were demons.
Black cats in particular got in trouble during the 1600's.
Europe was gripped by a witch hysteria. Thousands of women were burned as witches, hung or drown and black cats came to be regarded as their evil companions.
People even testified in court about witches who turned themselves into black cats.
Eventually, the hysteria subsided. But the black cat was left with an evil reputation that still lingers.

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