Evaluation of a Vampire

“I can’t explain it, but for some reason, I feel... very protective of you.”1

- Edward Cullen, “Twilight” – Stephanie Meyer2

“You should have seen the look on his face
when he woke up in Hell beside me,
the demon who was waiting to take possession of his body.
What a horrible taste I had in his mouth
when I first opened these eyes!”3

- Bobphegor the Vampire, “The Darkness Did Not” – William Biersach4

You will undoubtedly notice a difference between these two quotes: both were taken from a vampire story, but with two very different aspects of vampires in literature from two very different authors.5

The modern understanding of a vampire denotes one of two things: a being that has fallen victim to a bacterial virus that makes them thirst for blood and wane in the sunlight; or a being that has been bitten by a vampire (or in some cases, has drunken the blood of another vampire), and thus is consumed by the same curse of the attacker, thus becoming a unholy, undead denizen of darkness. But then as described on wikipedia, “...Although [a vampire is] typically described as undead, a vampire could be a living person.” Hmmm... in a word, "bullcrap."6

Both of these are versions based off the romantic vampire, namely that of the character of Dracula, according to the novel by Bram Stroker. Such a vampire is a victim of the curse or disease, and not at all guilty of the evil urges that they are compelled to do under the influence of the curse or disease. Thus, when they are cured of the disease or staked in being under a curse, they are reverted to their human states, and in the case of the latter, die in a way that is seemingly delightful, finally being purged of the darkness within. However, both of these views on vampires are flawed, and, for those who are interested in knowing, indeed quite far off from the vampire’s true origin. 7

According to older European-lore, a vampire (a.k.a., wampyr, vurkolak, vrylakas) is the manifestation of a demonic spirit possessing a recently decomposing body. This undead creature is vengeful and jealous towards the living and needing the blood of the living to sustain its body's existence. It is a mockery of the Resurrection of Christ, and its robbery of human flesh and blood is a perverted mirroring of Christ’s offering of His own Body and Blood for the Faithful. This version of the vampire, quite disturbing and not at all alluring. In other words, the body of the vampire is a vessel of a demon, which took the body of another damned soul, and is thus considered the lowest form of demonic possession. This origin also explains the vampire’s hate of crosses, holy water, rosaries, silver and garlic. While the first three just mentioned are of obvious religious roots, the silver and garlic also have religious properties that have been forgotten. Thus the so-called “religious nonsense” of crosses and holy water mentioned in “Blade” was indeed flawed; because silver and garlic have their own religious roots on effecting vampires! 8

Considering all the modern fairy tales that have been made - naturally, with the romantic vampire being a human that feared mortality and thus gave it up for eternal life, and iconically becoming a symbol of sexuality – very few strike home near the true origins of this terrible creature. The only recent movie that even came close to the true nature of vampires was Van Helsing (with Hugh Jackman), which kept pieces of the romantic vampire stereotype with the sexual implications by Dracula’s three brides, but also touched on an important piece of the puzzle – Dracula was not a victim of a disease or a unwilling given curse, but rather, he sold his soul to the Devil for his power. 9

Some pretty incredible insights into such lore was offered by William Biersach’s amazing book, “The Darkness Did Not.” This is pretty much the only book I ever read that has the vampire actually followed along with the lore rather than evolving into the absurd goody-goody romantic vampire depicted – probably the most absurd and inaccurate depiction of a vampire in all of literature - in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga. 10

In any case, the purpose of this article was to inform anyone who was ignorant about the darker side of vampire lore. Hopefully people reading this will realize vampires are not cool, and that Stephanie Meyer, is indeed, an ignoramus that doesn’t know the first thing about actual vampires. 11

AND NO, VAMPIRE SKIN DOES NOT SHINE LIKE DIAMONDS IN SUNLIGHT!12

Pardon the rant. Purgatory looms. That is all.