LUNAR ASCENSION - p2/4
UNDERLIGHTING AND THE RETURN OF THE POWERS
Seance Party
Seance Party in the Vampyre's Vault
THE EVOLUTION OF THE VAMPYRE IN THE MODERN WORLD

Below is something I just found on the internet that confirms my new concepts regarding the vampyre. I really believe I can take this to a whole new level.

What all this illustrates is what Grandpa said at the end of "The Lost Boys": "All the damned vampires." We really need a moratorium on vampire shit. We've got Twilight, the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood book/show, The Vampire Diaries, Underworld, and don't forget Anne Rice books still sell. There's the Vampire: Masquerade live action vampire game played by misfits and losers in every college town. Seriously, enough with the stupid vampires. This line of fantasy-horror has been totally, completely mined. There's NOTHING new; it's all the same. Sexy vampires, nubile young girls, conflict.

He has a surpise coming! There IS something new in the world of vampyres -- Vampyres Vault. In this innovative publication, I will create a whole new way of looking at vampyres while still embracing the old ways. And to do it, I will plunder the vampyres' own vault while they sleep and use their secrets to awaken them into a new light of day! Ohhhh yesssssss, the blood will flow!


THE VAMPYRE'S VAULT CAVITIES


Back from the Dead | Grave Hunt | Just Dug Up | Return of the Vamp Fashion Feast | Celebration of a Ghost Tour | Random Quote
The Unscene | Tour of Spooky Homes | The First Bite Cover | The Editor's Coffin | The Piper at the Wall | The Vampyre's Dilemma
The Immortal Vampyre | Vampyre Sweethearts | Get Some Garlek!
Gone Fishing, Really Gone | Tombsday Prophecies | The Return of the Powers



The End Time Prophecies are Released from the vault


VAULT OF DREAMS


We only came to sleep
We only came to dream
It is not true, no, it is not true
That we came to live on the earth.
(Aztec hymn)


The scent of the woman filled his nose with the aroma of warm red wine. "Someone's on the other side of the door!" Lastword called out to the others.

Sweetooth materialized behind him. "I doubt it," he said.

"Yet, here you are, " replied Lastword, his eyebrow raised in an expression of disgust.

"No one has been on the other side of that door for a hundred years," Sweetooth reminded him sweetly. Then, "I smell her!" he said. He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. "She smells like..."

"....breakfast," Lastword ended the sentence.

"Yes," agreed Sweetooth.

"No!" said Crayzee, materializing behind them. "She smells like trouble." Lastword and Sweetooth welcomed Crayzee coldly. The voice of reason was anathema to them, and Crayzee still insisted on making sense.

The dank of the Vampyres Vault and the cobwebbed Room of the Exalted would little recommend itself to humans, but it was the cozy home of its pale inhabitants for many hundreds of years. They were vampyres of an old breed, from an ancient land far away. They came over with the Spanish on sailing ships, hidden in the cargo bays and bleeding the passengers born to feed them.

In truth, the vampyres believed it, that the whole excursion into the new world was designed solely for them by some distant and nameless Great One, a Cthulhu of the old world who provided endless meals for them and portals to pass through. To say the vampyres had Spanish blood would be a misstatement. To say they preferred Spanish blood would be closer to the truth.

"So what do you want to do?" Lastword asked Crayzee, a stately vampyre and second in command. "I think we should eat her," he continued. "She'll make a tasty Eclair."

"Eclair? Her name is Clair?" Crazyee was always impressed with Lastword's ability to read minds.

"Actually, I think she spells it Clair with an "e." She's a metaphysical writer." They all had a big laugh at that, and the laughter brought them closer together as companions.

"Writers are not on the menu today," said Crayzee with a faint smile. "We will do nothing. Maybe she'll go away."

"And that's why they call you Crayzee," said Sweetooth, sighing in some combination of disrespect and frustration.

"Think about it," Crayzee replied. "We can't afford to be discovered, not after all these centuries of laying low, especially not by a writer. Why not just let her alone, let her stand there to wonder what it means. She won't have the guts to open that door."

"Mmmm, guts," said Lastword with a wicked grin.

"What's to stop her?" said Sweetooth.

"For one thing, 'Vampyres Vault' is carved into the door. Most humans would think twice about opening a door like that. And that's why we carved it there, remember?" Crayzee knew he did not need to remind them. But he also knew how many full moons had passed since the vampyres had been excited about anything. Someone on the other side of the door of Vampyres Vault represented tantalizing excitement. But their existence was a secret to the rest of the town, and so it needed to remain. He didn't know how he would prevent Lastword and Sweetooth from opening the door and feasting on the writer, but he knew he had to try.

Crayzee gave it his best shot. "This is a matter for Govanut," he said. Sweetooth and Lastword stood frozen in the moment. Crayzee's idea was working.

"Now wait a minute," said Lastword. "There's no need for that."

"For what?" said Govanut, materializing behind them and wearing full pirate's regalia and captain's hat. "Someone call me?"

"Yea, me, " said Crayzee, eyeing Govanut in admiration tinged with envy of his costuming flair. The rest of them were resigned to wearing something less dramatic, in hopes of keeping Govanut placated. He became a monster if annoyed. "We got us a situation here," said Crayzee with a faint smile.

"Yum," laughed Govanut. "What's that wonderful smell?" He knew what it was and no one needed to explain the nature of the situation, either. "Here is my ruling," he said, magically enlarging his captain's hat for effect. "We will wait to see if Claire opens the door of the vault. If she does, she's ours. If she doesn't, we let her frightened blood go."

"And if she goes and writes about us, what then?" Lastword took a big chance in challenging Govanut, but he thought he had a valid point and also he thirsted for the writer's blood.

Govanut got that look that everyone feared, the one that told them he was about to call in his Powers. They all quickly assured him they were satisfied with his ruling, and they might as well be since they had no chance of changing it. Govanut was the law. But not for very much longer. The writer on the other side of the door would change all that.


Claire Grace WatsonTHE WRITER (BEFORE THE FALL)

Dear One:

How are you doing? I hope you are well and happy. I would have written sooner but I moved to St. Augustine, Fl. I just want to continue my research and investigations in a haunted town and I think this is the place. So much better to have the psychic experiences along with the factual research. I can understand things better that way. So come visit me! You will love it here.

You know, I met a three year-old girl here who told me she was a psychic investigator and that she wants to solve a mystery. Can you believe it? She's half-Columbian and born here, so I suppose that explains it because I sure can't. Anyway, just thought I would throw that in as proof of something.

Blood Account BookRight away, I found an unusual book and it made me think I was meant to be here. I went into one of those cute shops that you see all over this place, and this one had an interesting, old red book. Etched into the cover and almost worn away are the words, "The Blood Account Book." (I enclose a picture of the book.)

So I asked the shopkeeper about it and he said it probably was a prop used in a movie or local theatrical production. But I don't know. You should see this thing. It's so worn, like someone has been reading it for centuries and it has drawings in it. A pentagram is on the inside cover and I swear I can see thumb prints on it. It also has a local map, at least I think it's local. It looks local but it points to some area off the map. I asked the guy about that and he said it was just for entertainment. I'm thinking, strange entertainment. You know? So I bought it, not that it was cheap. I looked around the shop to see if there were others and he told me it was the only one. He probably tells that to everyone who buys this book. I bet he's got fifty more of them hidden under the counter lol.

The Blood Account Book has one word written on the first page opposite the pentagram. It's "Ghost." I never really associated a pentagram with ghosts, did you? Mostly I thought witches and pentagrams, not ghosts. But I am wondering about the single word because of the color of the book, blood red, and it makes me think of vampyres. I have never heard of vampyres being in St. Augustine, so maybe the word "Ghosts" applies to the local ghosts. I'm going to head on out to library now and see what I can find about vampyres in association with ghosts.

Oh, btw, I'm designing a website to hold the images I find and my research notes. The library here is very friendly. They will order any book I need and they are always polite and respectful to me. Maybe it's because of the books I am ordering, currently the books on witches. I think I might be a witch so I need to do the research to see if I am. Perhaps they think I am a witch and so they don't want to aggravate me. Who knows, I might zap them into a frog or, even worse, cast a spell on them to make their hair thin out. Oh I know, a spell to make hair grow and turn black on their upper lip. Then they will have to pay for waxings hehe

So I guess what I'm getting at is that you might not hear from me again very soon as I have all this reading to do on vampyres and witches. But don't worry. I will write when I can and you can also see my progess on the website. Let me know if you have any ideas and, as always, take care of yourself and think good thoughts.

InLight,

Claire


Claire Grace WatsonTHE VAMPYRE CLARISSA


Dear One:

Hello again. How are you keeping? I would have written sooner but my time has been spent on adventure rather than chronicle. I have so much to tell and so I would love to see you in the flesh. We could enjoy each other so much better that way.

I have moved again, this time into a lovely place most uncommon in St. Augustine. It's the Vampyres Vault. What a wonderful cozy place and full of old legends and comforting sounds. Cozy catacombs and crypts, that's what I'm talkin' about. I also have a nice coffin in the Huguenot Cemetery where I meet the most interesting folks. That's where I met Gary Gravestone. Gary's not a vampyre, he's just a ghost. But what an illusionist! He taught me so much about illusions. Before Gary came over from the other side, he was a realtor.

My approach to writing has changed somewhat. I feed on the flesh of ideas, and I spill the red blood onto the page just for you. I sink my teeth into my work, and no one dares disturb me. I bloodied some pages so you can read more about me. And what shall you give me in return?

You might think a coffin an uncomfortable place to live and perhaps even a little claustrophobic. I understand you completely and normally I would agree with you that a coffin is awfully small, but there is something you have yet to realize. As you may not know, a vampyre has the power of illusion. One of the uses of that power involves interior design. Oh yes, the coffin is a great place if you know how to produce illusions. Thanks to Gary, I'm getting rather good at it.

One of my favorite coffin illusions is the Dr. Who illusion. I can make the coffin bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. This gives me room for the kitchenette illusion, the bedroom illusion, the living room illusion and the library illusion. Of course, I love luxurious decorations, so I have velvet illusions, furniture illusions and electricity illusions in all the rooms. Oh, and some fashion illusions. I do so love the vampyre styles in fashion now.

You might wonder why a vampyre would need a kitchen in a coffin. Silly you! Where else would you cook up your "ex" when you get the munchies? Oh, this reminds me. I bloodied a very important page for you to read entitled "Vampire Sweethearts." Oh yes, you need to read it! How would you know if your sweetheart is a vampyre if you don't even know a kitchen is necessary in a coffin? I spilled a good bit of blood on this paper and I did it just for you. But take heart. (Any heart will do.) It's not a total loss if you find out your sweetheart is a vampyre. They make great munchies after you've buried the hatchet, so to speak.

Believe me, I really don't make a habit of killing and eating my ex-sweethearts, but in the case of this particular ex-sweetheart, I simply could not resist. And I didn't have much of a dilemma, either, because my ex was the Pied Piper of Hamlin. If you have heard of him then you already know he had it coming to him. He's a real vampyre, you know. Well, he used to be. I met him at a seance party in the Vampyres Vault.

And it wasn't like I didn't give him some warning. I went to the seance party dressed as a Piper, and still he didn't catch on to my plans. In his narcissism, he thought I admired him so much I just wanted to dress like him. I was standing there with my hand out for him to pay me and, duh!, he still didn't get it. What a thick-skulled, egotistical dummie he was! He made a rotten investment on Wall Street that cost him plenty. I bloodied some pages entitled "The Piper at the Wall" so you can read about him. The Piper always looked on the bright side of things, and that's what I will miss about him. He used to tell me, "Well, at least I can't die twice." He was wrong.

Honestly, I have to admit having a corpse in the kitchen does make the coffin a bit funky. You know what I do when the coffin gets smelly? I go out for a little air, even do some night fishing. Oh, you think the dead don't fish? Well, I can prove they do. A couple of friends of mine, JR and JB, stopped by the other day to tell me all about their fishing trip.

What a wonderfully creepy time we had discussing illusions. JR and JB were telling me the downside of illusions is they can really get away from you if you're not careful. I recorded their adventure on my tape recorder illusion and finally got around to scribbling it down. It's entitled "Gone Fishing, Really Gone."

Red Account BookThe library is one of my favorite spots in my coffin. It's where I keep The Blood Account Book. I found it, remember, in a silly shop in Upside St. Augustine. Your name is written in blood on one of the pages, by the way. No, I didn't write it there. Ok, maybe I did write it there but I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. It won't do you any good anyway to worry. I'll tell you what it means later when we meet in the flesh. Oh, I would love to show you Vampyres Vault. You could join me there in a seance party. If you've got the guts that is. And if you do have the guts, well I hope you can keep them.

Talking of Vampyres Vault really brings back memories for me of when I first discovered it. Some really creepy vampyres hang out in that vault. And they so like to hit on me, if you know what I mean. First time I was there I saw some prophecies written in blood on the wall. Well, I was in such a hurry to escape that moldering, dank ole' place, that I only had a chance to read one of them. Later on, of course, I went back and read the rest. But the first one really surprised me. It's called "The Tombsday Prophecy." I will tell you more about when we finally meet in the flesh, which will be soon, I hope.

I want to introduce you to my new friend Stumbleblock. I warn you, Stumbleblock is a little bit odd. According to the psycho-analysts at the Beulah Land Home for the Clinically Strange, he suffers from post-traumatic haunt syndrome and he is also bi-molar. His fangs are coming in at the back of his mouth. In short, he's done way too many hauntings and his development as a vampyre is stunted on account of his lack of frontal fangs. He conducts a mess of a ghost tour, though, that you don't want to miss.

Enough about me. Oh and by the way, you might want to buy a deadbolt, not that it will help all that much. If the vampyres find out about you, a deadbolt may give you just enough time to escape, but I doubt it. And get some Garlek. Just FYI.

InDark,

Clarissa



THE PIPER AT THE WALL

Most of us are familiar with the interesting story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. As I mentioned in "The Editor's Coffin," I knew the Piper personally. He was my sweetheart until he refused to dance to my tune. The best thing about the Piper is the tasty chilled munchies he makes. By this I mean, he doesn't make the munchies himself, he actually is the munchies.

Anyway, to continue with the story, the townspeople hired the Piper to help rid them of the rats. In one version of the story, the Pied Piper hypnotized the children instead and led them into a mysterious land, where they were hopelessly lost without his guidance. There, he held them ransom until the villagers paid a huge amount of gold to get their children back.

The Piper made a fortune and continued on to the next village where he ran the same scam on the people there. Happily for the Piper, there were plenty of villages to loot in his clever way. Nothing lasts forever, though. I know what became of the Pied Piper.

The Piper grew tired of his success and began to look for other ways to profit. With the money he had piled up from kidnapping children, he decided to invest on Wall Street. Unfortunately for him, the mortgage business had recently imploded. He only just missed out on the opportunity of the lifetime to profit from subprime lending. Just as he was about to leave town and go look for some villages to plunder, he received a call from his financial advisor about a new investment banking opportunity. What a good one it turned out to be!

Investment bankers want to purchase "life settlements." These are the life insurance policies sold by ill and elderly people for cash, the amount they receive depending upon when they expect to die. If they are to die very soon, they receive more money as opposed to malingering for awhile. The investment bankers will secure these policies by packaging hundreds together as bonds. Then, they will resell the bonds to investors, who will profit when the people die. The sooner the person dies, the bigger the return. If some should live longer than expected, the investors will get a poor return and maybe even lose money.

The Pied Piper knew this would work because he recognized the tune. It was the same one he always played, but now the bankers were playing it. He wanted to get in on the ground floor because the scheme was certain to hypnotize investors. As soon as the life insurance securitizations made it onto the street, the greedy were sure to follow in crowds.

But the Pied Piper forgot one important thing about making this decision to be bullish and invest in people dying sooner than later. When he buys into this investment, whether he profits does not matter because he secures his result. The time will come when even the Pied Piper has to pay the Piper.



THE VAMPYRE'S DILEMMA

One of the Blood Account Books that I mentioned in "The Editor's Coffin" contains some very interesting information. Let me share this with you. I will share something with you and, in return, you will share yourself with me. Deal? Did you know that a vampyre is actually a ghost? It keeps the semblence of life by feasting on human blood. Where do you suppose these creatures like me come from?

My search for the origin of my kind leads me to Thanatos, the Greek personification of Death, as a likely candidate. Although he was a minor character in Greek mythology, he was a son of Nyx or Night and Erebos or Darkness. His brother was Hypnos, the personification of Sleep. Thanatos and Hypnos constantly dwelled in Night and Darkness. The sun never touched their faces. While Hypnos was considered friendly to humanity, Thanatos was feared by all and considered to be hateful. He was known to have no pity and once he seized upon a human, he held fast.

Through narratives in fiction and transformations in myth, Thanatos may have become our modern vampyre and the personification of something new in the mythology of our age. But it took a little help from modern psychology to achieve it. About the time Bram Stoker wrote Dracula (1897), Sigmund Freud was writing and publishing his theories about Eros and Thanatos. In Greek mythology Eros is the god of sexual love.

According to Freud, humans have two powerful, internal motivations or drives, a life instinct (sex drive) that he called Eros, and the death drive (death wish) that he called Thanatos. This theory of Freud's was highly controversial, and that gave it the impetus to catch on in popular media. Soon, the vampyre became more than just a hateful blood sucker but also sexy. The vampyre brings Sex and Death together in a unique way.

The addition of sexuality to the vampyre makes the creature even more compelling and dramatic. Oh, what a dilemma the vampyre has, whether to eat and kill or to love and protect. Now we can see why the vampyre in fiction is so appealing, because it plays out for us our own conflicting emotions about so many things. This was always the great value of drama, to allow us to achieve catharsis. Our pity and grief for the poor victims of the vampyre, combined with our fear and lusting after the vampyre, allows us to experience these emotional conflicts without directly experiencing the terrible reality.

Were we to ask Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and associate of Freud's, what the vampyre means to us, he might surprise us with his answer. He might say that this catharsis supplied by the vampyre in fiction satisfies the goal of the psyche, which is purification of the self. Were we to ask him if there are other ways to achieve this purification, he might reply, "Ya, but this is the fun way!"

THE IMMORTAL VAMPYRE

As a vampyre, I am naturally fascinated with myself. Well, who can blame me? But let me ask you this. How deep is your fascination with the vampyre, and what might be the end result of such an obsession?

Contemporary vampyre art places the vampyre alongside the angel in a blending of symbolism, portending something both occult and divine. Do we see this as our destiny, as the evolution of human beings entering the next phase of existence? Do we now begin to see ourselves as angels corrupted by our connection to the flesh and blood of life? Are we really fallen angels, struggling to embrace the visage of the vampyre as our next step on the return path home?

Or maybe our logic is taking over in a way we do not recognize because it has to do with something illogical, with the vampyre. If so, it could be possible that our penchant for the logical outcome has reached the level of collective mind, so that we can see what must logically become of our species. Where once we envisioned ourselves kneeling at the feet of angels in our next life, we now seem to see ourselves lingering behind on the planet, in the twilight, as half-angel, half-vampyre. We become not only worshippers and servants of a higher power but also a people laying claim to personal power that results from having lived in the blood red, physical world of tooth and claw.

Perhaps the vampyre represents our defiance, our refusal to cede our power even though we cede our physical lives. We think that, via the vampyre, we do not have to really give up what we love so much. Oh, it is not life we are afraid of losing but its powers; the power to move objects, the power to cause events, the power to become more than we started out as, the power to live and to live well.

The vampyre may represent our deep, hidden knowledge that somehow, some way, we can claim this power even though we cannot stop the death of our bodies, cannot prevent the foul subtraction of our lives. If this is so, if the vampyre represents a collective recognition of a vast, even supernal, power that we can lay claim to, then I say the potential for this must really exist. The vampyre is not fantasy, is not silliness but is something deeply meaningful and even divine. The vampyre is our vision of the greatest power of all, the power to die and live again in the fullness of the human potential and under the aegis of the divine.

Through the vampyre we can gain an ascendency over the physical world and all its crushing powers. Only in fiction is the vampyre about sucking the blood of other humans. That narrative entertains us while, deep in our subconscous minds, we contemplate the vast implications of power over death. If the vampyre is what we really want, if somewhere within us we know we can claim the power of conscious immortality, then I think we should go for it because all things are possible in the kingdom we create!


VAMPYRE SWEETHEARTS

How Do You Know if Your Sweetheart is a Vampyre?

This is similar to columns you see in magazines that are designed to interest a certain kind of reader, in this case Flagler college students and other dating couples. The idea is to intertwine both versions of the vampyre, the old and our new concepts. For example, the list would work back and forth in a humerous way. (1) Does your sweetheart occasionally have a drop of blood on their chin? (2) When you go out together, do you always have to pay for everything? (3) Does your sweetheart like to sleep very late into the day? (4) When you are together, do you often feel drained of your energy? etc.


GET SOME GARLEK


Vampyres are allergic to garlic, but a little-known, old vampyre remedy for the common cold involves garlek. Garlic is an ancient plant that was originally spelled garlek from the Middle English and also spelled garleac from the Anglo Saxon. It gets its name from its spearlike leaves. Gar means spear and leac references leek.

Vampyres generally avoid garlek, but sucking blood is not without its dangers, as a vampyre will sometimes catch a cold virus from humans. This is a terrible thing because vampyres cannot handle a lot of sneezing. It interrupts their nightly feedings.

To help with a cold, a vampyre crushes some garlek cloves and covers them in olive oil for one-half hour. They rub the oil on their feet and then put some cloves between their icky vampyre toes. Then they put on some socks and go to bed to sleep the sleep of the undead. The garlek works on their immune system, their lungs, and also fights bacterial infections.

When they awake in the evening they may have garlek breath, but that just tells them the garlek remedy is working. This is very good news. Now the sneezing will not interrupt their evening meal.


GONE FISHING, REALLY GONE


THE TOMBSDAY PROPHECIES

A big build-up kind of heading and then a prophecy. This is a way of touching on the subject of the 2012 end of the world scenario but with a lampoon approach. Instead of doomsday prophecies we use tombsday prophecies. That will give us the opportunity to lampoon, by a one word pun, the idea that the world will end on that day in December, 2012 while at the same time allowing us to commentary on the subject. For example, the first prophecy could be a paragraph or two about upcoming solar flares, and that would explain why we need to learn to live underground. It's a bit of a joke but we can still be relevant in terms of addressing the subject.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

This is a column about local businesses that are recovering well from the recent recession. It gives an opportunity for businesses to let it be known via the magazine that they are doing well and looking for more business. It also has the advantage of the cover, which would seem to be about those businesses. We could use some kind of humorous "arisen" image to highlight this column, maybe an image of a vampire rising from the grave, something to get a chuckle.

GRAVE HUNT

This is a Gary Gravestone column and involves hunting for a certain grave. Quests are very popular and this is like a treasure hunt, only it's a grave hunt. We could include a picture of a grave and then challenge the reader to find it. The reward might be something we could think up, perhaps free dinner tickets, or something that would be fun and helpful to the magazine. If the web site was up and interactive, the reader could log into the web site and report where they found the grave. We could then give them something else to find and report back, and this would get people involved in the publication.

JUST DUG UP/FRESH FINDS/RECENTLY UNEARTHED

This is an opportunity to include some local news and/or event information in more than one location in the magazine as space filler.

RETURN OF THE VAMP FASHION SHOW FEAST

This would be just a short, almost advert size space announcing the fashion show. We would be fishing for some show of interest and even some entries into the fashion show. Also, we are hoping it will open some unknown doors about where it could be held and who might be interested.

CELEBRATION OF A GHOST TOUR

A column written by the ghost Stumbleblock, who is currently thwarted at becoming a full-fanged vampyre. He is offering a local ghost tour that involves visiting the local haunts, which he describes in his column. This would be something to develop to further advertise the magazine. Probably would have to coordinate with one of the local ghost tour companies to achieve this, as it takes a license to run a ghost tour as well as a licensed tour guide.


RANDOM QUOTE

Blurb quote in the magazine somewhere to fill up some space, that is relevant to our publication and just a cool quote.


"There are things known and things unknown, and in between are the doors." (Jim Morrison)


"I will soon go to my new home. Soon will I step into the new world for there is a plain pathway before me leading me there. (Handsome Lake, The Code of Handsome Lake, ca. 1770)


THE UNSCENE

This is just a great column that would be open for development, perhaps as a ghost hunt or another quest type activity involving local spooks.

TOUR OF SPOOKY HOMES

Written by Gary Gravestone, undead realtor, this would be either a real tour or a tour through images of spooky homes. The homes don't have to be local or even in this century. They could images of famous spooky homes. It could also involve local realtors who might to advertise a tour of homes, especially the spooky ones.

IN THE SHADOW OF HER WINGS

Lillith, Vampyre

In the legend of Lillith, said to be the first vampyress, dominance over her man seems to be the theme. Although widely believed to be part of the Bible, the legend of Lillith does not appear in the Bible at all, except as a word meaning "night creature" or "screech owl." But she is part of the ongoing "Babel" about good women gone bad or gone over to vampyrism and domination over men, or just plain gone.

It would come as no little surprise to women everywhere if the legend of Lillith was created by men. In the legend, Lillith is the first wife of Adam. She left him because she refused to be dominated by him. In other versions, she left him because of his sexual inadequacy. In these accounts of her, Lillith left Adam to have an affair with the archangel Samael. This archangel, in early common era Gnosticism, is the blind Angel of Death, explaining perhaps how Lillith came to be associated with death.

Lillith's choice of Samael as the cuckold of Adam makes sense and is meaningful symbolism. In this historical, mythological menage a trois, Adam represents the beginning of all human life, Samael is the end of it, and the sexy Lillith is the connection between them. Samael has an extensive history in Gnosticism, and a pretty good ongoing family drama, as a powerful divine being created by Sophia (a mythological figure personifying Wisdom). He believes himself to be the one and only god even though his mother keeps telling him that he is not. His defeat by the highest powers then represents the triumph of life over death at all levels of the creation.

Lillith may have originated as Lilitu, a Mesopotamian storm demon, who was thought to be the bringer of death. If so, she is at least 6,000 years old and looks like she may have been the inspiration for vampire author Anne Rice's fictional character Akasha, Queen of the Damned, who appears as a stone statue. Seen in this image with her screech owls, the winged Lilitu may also have been the inspiration for the Greek goddess Athena, who sometimes appeared as an owl.

Demonization of revered figures, in which the old gods become the new devils, is not uncommon when proginators of new religions are striving to achieve acceptance. But Lillith or Lilitu was always a demon and this may account for the ease with which she found her place in iconography as the first vampyress and also in Jewish folklore as Adam's first wife gone wrong. Even Michelangelo, as late as the 16th century, portrayed Lillith in art as the serpent in the Garden of Eden who tempted Adam and Eve, perhaps avenging her wrath against her man for finding someone to take her place.

Or perhaps she symbolized for the great artist, who is widely believed to have been gay, the power of women to tempt literally anyone. After all, the seductress does not have that name for nothing and she plays her part in the drama of life and death with great flair and success. Famously, the song of the Sirens seduced even the heroic Odysseus away from his beloved Penelope, and in medieval times when sex becomes a crime designated "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," sometimes punishable by death, we have the emergence of the succubus, a winged being who circumvents the law by seducing men in their sleep.

The legend of Lillith, and her ensuing status through the millenias, has elevated her to a kind of sacred position representative of women acquiring their own powers through their own ways. As a very masculine man once said to me, "I like women who know how to get what they want." Maybe his sentiment is actually part of our collective and this would help to explain how Lillith manages to live on in infamy, and with great respect, as our Queen of Vampyres.

NIGHTMARE ON PERSIA STREET

Vampyre"Popular lore attributes to them a tall stature, frizzy hair, a snub nose, thick and pendulous lips, long nails and a furry body, and adds wings and horns." (Persian Beliefs and Customs by Henri Masse. HRAF New Haven, ©1954, p.344-346)

That quote describes the ancient Persian vampyre that supposedly predates all vampyres, even Lillith, a wind demon of Mesopotamia. But it certainly is not descriptive of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in "Interview with the Vampire." And thankfully so, because I doubt we would be lusting after that blood sucking thing in Persia like we do movie star vampyres. Who can easily forget Gary Oldman's turn at Dracula in the film of the same name? Wow, there was a hot vampyre!

Reading further into the ancient Persian stories of demons, it seems to me that I am reading the media of their times. Lacking movies, directors, and actors, they had instead those bizarre stories or scripts about the demons and everything bad laid at their feet, including infections, disease and death. We assume the Persians everywhere accepted those demons as factual because we know they had limited medical knowledge and needed some explanation for their ailments. Their acceptance of those demons as real is almost the same thing as our acceptance of Freddy Krueger, in "Nightmare on Elm Street," as real. It is the equivalent of our saying, "The reason we have nightmares is because of Freddy Krueger."

Those stories of Persian demons are very creative. Hollywood may be missing out on some good horror script opportunities by overlooking those demons and forebears of the vampyre. Here is one I like:

Devalpa is an old man who stands at the edge of the road and sighs. He addresses the following request to all passers-by: "Take me on your shoulders." If anyone picks him up, three meters of legs like snakes suddenly come out of Devalpa's belly and twine around the bearer. Devalpa takes a solid grasp, and gives the following order: "Work for me." In order to get rid of him, you have to get him drunk.

Any excuse to hang out in the pub is a good one, I guess. "I'm just here to get this Devalpa drunk!" Here is another good one:

The palis (licker of feet) attacks a man when he is asleep in the desert and licks the soles of his feet until it has drunk all the man's blood. Once it was duped by two muleteers from Isfahan who, when they were caught in the desert at night, slept foot to foot and covered with the mantles. The palis circled around them in vain and finally went away, saying: "I have explored 1,033 valleys, but I have never seen a man with two heads."

Congratulations to the muleteers (people who drive mules)! It takes a lot to outsmart mules, so perhaps it takes muleteers to outsmart vampyres. Maybe that is how the vampyre came to be a neck biter, since it realized humans can sleep foot to foot and cheek to cheek but not neck to neck. Or maybe they happened upon the carotid artery one night in desperation when the foot sucking was a no-go.

Despite their citations in contemporary writing and credits given, it is doubtful the Persian demons were the first vampyres. Quoting the author above, "They (vampyres) once infested the world and tormented human beings fiercely; then Solomon (Solaiman) put an enchantment on them with talismans until the end of the world." If it was Solomon who put the enchantments on them, then they likely do not predate Lillith. Even if they are supposed to have run amuk tomenting humanity for 5,000 years or so until they ran afoul of Solomon, who was born about 1011 BCE, it seems doubtful they can substantiate their claim as the world's first vampyres. Either way, it was a bad day for them when they crossed paths with Solomon, who was reputed to have vast magical powers.

According to Gnostic literature around the turn of the first century, King Solomon magically trapped seven demons in seven bronze vases. I wonder if it was those same Persian demons. He sent the vases from Jerusalem to Egypt, entrusting their care to the Egyptian priests, who used a magical book against them called The Seven Heavens, supposedly written by Solomon. The vases, called Khalkhydras, were made of electrum and engraved with magical formulae.

So, with a magic book King Solomon trapped the demons in magic vases. That does seem to point to Persia, keeping in mind the djinn or genie inside the vase. But it seems to have drifted far away from the assertion many writers make that Persian demons were the first vampyres. As for this writer, until something new comes to light, perhaps from China, I accept Lillith as the First Vampyre.


VAMPYRE'S VAULT CONCEPTS FOR EXPLORATION

Vampyre projections may be the call of the unconscious mind to the ego, who reigns like Ialdoboath on the physical throne of death and destruction.

Modern psychology hinders

rights and heritage

everyone has this potentiality

Lose your mind to gain your mind

Dionysis revelers

Deterioration of the powers to our level yet

The lure of material gain simultaneously diminishes our ability to hear the call of the psyche

10 steps to fast enlightenment

Definition of planetary ascension

Defination of lunar ascension - are they real

Talk about ancient Egyptian Ka-Ba material, thats what we call the psyche, ancient greek for the living unconscious mind.

Karl Jung said the psyche is real, psyche must be stopped at all cost, acording to your ego because its a threat to all the things and priorities of the ego, and a threat to the whole way this planet has evolved, usury, consumption and greed.

which at many levels is fine but to leave behind our greatest power while we build up a monumental material power is untimately unsustainable as it causes the seperation and without the power of psyche fully involved in daily life, is it any wonder we feel an ultimate loss of control over not only our environment but even our day to day life. The ego runs rampant as though posssossed by some madness. It's missing its partner, the thing that keeps it balanced and sane.


Leaving the Vampyre behind now, some related group darkwork events follow on the next two pages.



Lunar Ascension 2013 Page 1 - The Return of the Powers | The World's Wisdom
     In the Shadow of Her Wings | Samael the Seducer
     The Immortal Vampyre | The Vampyre's Dilemma
     Nightmare on Persia Street
Lunar Ascension 2013 Page 2 - Evolution of the Vampyre | Vampyre's Vault Cavities
     First Bite Cover | Vault of Dreams | The Writer (Before the Fall)
     The Vampyre Clarissa | The Piper at the Wall
     Vampyre's Dilemma | Immortal Vampyre | Get Some Garlek
     Shadow of Her Wings | Nightmare on Persia Street
     Vampyre Concepts
Lunar Ascension 2013 Page 3 - Cosmic Mass for Spirit Releasement
     Releasement Methods | About the Pearsons | The Cosmic Mass
     Spirit's Releasement | Mass Impressions
     Unitarian Universalists | Second Releasement and Results
Lunar Ascension 2013 Page 4 - Ejoesa Ritual of the Portal | Krishna Teaches Physics
     Searching for the Key | The Last Ritual of the Portal
     Fire Ritual to Welcome the Ejoesa | Ritual of the Arapaho Portal
     Arapaho Spirit Guides | Arapaho Chanting
     10th Dimension of Time


BOOKS, ARTICLES, ART, AND WEB DESIGN BY CLAIRE GRACE WATSON

THIS IS A PHAISTOS DISK INSPIRED ARTICLE

Copyright Notice - Disk of the World - Text and images copyrighted March 21, 1993-2023, Claire Grace Watson, B.A., M.S.T., U.S. Copyright and under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, All rights reserved.