** BIDDING YOU ALL A MOST GOTHIC NEW YEAR THAT BE FILLED WITH MANY VAMPISH DELIGHTS!! Blessed creating, and may your dreams and wishes come true...**

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Apparently my 'fairy name' is FEATHER SNOWDANCER...awwwww!!



** PLEASE BARE WITH ME DARLINGS AS I LEARN HOW TO PUT THIS WONDERFUL JOURNAL TOGETHER! I HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE...SO AGAIN, BARE WITH ME!! ISN'T IT JUST GORGEOUS!!! **



VAMPYRISM in Folklore:

Vampirism, in folklore,often results from an incomplete transition between the world of the living and that of the dead. In Michelle's 2005 release, Sacred Hunger this concept is explored in great detail. The following article,originally included in Sacred Hunger explores this concept in the context of Romanian vampire folklore.

The thing that distinguishes these vampires, both living and dead, is that they have made an incomplete transition between this world and the next. In the case of the undead vampires, this liminality is clear. The undead are beings that have failed to truly die.

According to the beliefs of the villagers, the physical body of the undead strigoi dies, but the spirit does not cross over. It is this lingering spirit that then animates the body and causes it to return, again and again, preying upon those it knew it life. In Vampires, Burial, and Death, author Paul Barber has made a compelling case that the folkloric vampire was developed as a kind of metaphor for contagion. It is true that where belief in the undead exists, they are often blamed for plagues and rampant disease that carry too many family members and friends to an early grave.

However, in examining the oral traditions recorded by folklorist Harry Senn in The Were-wolf and Vampire in Romania, there is a metaphysical element to the undead vampire that Barber’s notion of contagion oversimplifies. Undead vampires are not merely individuals who have died of some poorly understood disease which then runs its course through all the people that the vampire came into contact with.Long before the onset of any fatal disease, most of the undead of Romania were already marked as candidates for vampirism. They are individuals whose lives, deaths, or even the circumstances of their births, marked them as liminal beings. They hang in a state between life and death that is typically described as “undead.”

This incomplete transition is not limited simply to the "undead" who become vampires after their deaths. Romanian strigoi, or living vampires, are also victims of incomplete transitions between the two worlds.Somewhere, in the process of being born, their passage from the world of spirit to the world of flesh is interrupted.

According to the folklore of the Romanians interviewed by Senn, all such living vampires bear the mark of this incomplete passage. They are born with a caul, or a little tail; they are born covered in fine hair; they have twin-pupils, or they have a dark ring of color around the irises of their eyes. These remarkable physical signs reveal the individual as having been touched by the otherworld, and aspects of that world cling to them still.

--Michelle Belanger

Contrary to the popular image of literary "reluctant vampires," most individuals in the vampire subculture see their condition as a blessing, not a curse. This notion can be taken to extremes, however, so that vampirism becomes not only a privilege but also a sign of spiritual superiority over the lowlier members of "mere humanity." The following origin story takes this thread of vampiric elitism to even greater heights, suggesting that vampires are nothing less than messiahs -- chosen ones to whom all other humans are cattle to be guided or used as food.

This is an interesting tale which I believe owes a great deal of inspiration to the book, Bloodline of the Holy Grail. It was passed on to me by a member of a prominent vampire temple that has existed since at least1991. The member has requested strict anonymity because he tells me the information revealed below is jealously guarded by his temple. No one but the highest ranking members may gain access to this story and there are severe penalties for revealing the information to lesser initiates within the temple, let alone complete outsiders.

This group sees vampires as spiritual "chosen ones," individuals who are meant to lead or feast upon the lesser human race. I reprint it here so that you may compare it with some of the other beliefs that are perhaps a little less strictly guarded. As the founders of this group themselves caution their followers, discern with care:

Listen to these words:

In the elder days, those who carried our legacy within their blood were revered as kings and leaders of men. In public, they were anointed to show that they were the chosen, and their new name, their elder name,was proclaimed to all. The oil used for anointing was that of the crocodile, the messeh, for it was a creature of great strength feared and respected. They were sons of the Dragon, and they traced their line to the greatest of dragons, Hekal Tiamat.

When the Israelites were held captive, they adopted this custom, so that those they recognised as their leaders were anointed with oil and became known as messiahs, anointed ones.

And Moses, son of Pharaoh, carried the bloodline in his veins. He adopted the people of Israel and established the legacy among them. King Saul carried the bloodline, but his child Jonathon inherited nothing of it. Saul was among those of ancient blood whose power came with madness as its toll. And so the holy man Samuel,who was schooled in recognising those who carried the blood royal, went forth to seek a new king. And the child David was found. In all of Israel, he had inherited the strongest measure of the blood.

And Samuel, knowing the desperate need for a new king, anointed David.David was to be initiated later into the mysteries, but Samuel died before this was done. And therefore David never came properly into his power, yet still within him the blood was strong.

And so was founded the bloodline of the House of David. And David passed the bloodline to Solomon, but though the blood was strong in Solomon, in his children it was weak. And after Solomon, the blood of kings ran weakly through the Israelites.

For many years after Solomon, the priesthood sought among the Israelites and the descendants of the House of David for one worthy to be deemed a messiah. But it was not until many years after the bloodline of David had been scattered throughout the land could one be found. And this was a child named Jesus, son of Joseph. In this child, the bloodline was strong, and he carried great knowledge even in his youth. The priesthood of the Israelites had faltered over the years, and much of their knowledge was lost. And so priests of the Order of Magi, who kept our secrets in the East, came to instruct the child Jesus. And Jesus was anointed a messiah, child of the Dragon, and given the full birthright of his blood.

But the Israelites had forgotten what the messiah truly was. Jesus was not respected, and his own people, those he was born to lead, turned him over to the Romans for execution. Before his death, he sent his brother and his wife far to the West. His wife carried a child, the first-born of Jesus, and in this child lay the hope that the bloodline would continue.

And they settled in Gaul with what remained of the Celtic people, for these had proven strong against the rising tide of the Romans. And it was there in France that the bloodline continued. The sangreal, or bloodroyal, became the noble house of France. The symbol of the house was the lily, symbolic of the death and rebirth endured by each initiate.And the secret symbol was the Dragon, the source of the power of the blood.

And the bloodline passed to the Merovingian witch kings,as can be attested by their powers and the many arts and knowledge's they safeguarded. And through marriage and migration, it was carried to Britain and endured in the line of the Pendragons. And in Eastern Europe, bearers of this blood were the family Dracul. When the blood was strong, great leaders were born, but always, there was the threat of madness from too great a power living in a single human vessel.

And a new order of the priesthood was established, schooled in the old ways, so that they might recognise those of the bloodline and teach them in its ways. And these orders grew diverse and spread throughout Europe, each keeping some aspect of the secret lore safe within their temples. Yet despite this, much had been lost when the wife of Jesus was forced to flee from Israel.

Secretly, wars were plotted to get this lore back. The Knights Templar sought the relics of the bloodline in Araby, Egypt, and the ruins of Solomon's great temple.They traded secret knowledge of the blood with the Eastern orders who had descended from the Magi. And carefully, they gathered all their finds and brought them back to France, the new seat of the blood royal.

Those not of the blood grew jealous. They plotted, sometimes together,sometimes singly, to wrest the power and authority from the hands of the anointed. Through treachery and murder, many became kings who were not worthy of the name. The order of the messiahs became disinherited and deposed. The priesthoods were repressed out of fear, and the Templars were destroyed for the secrets which they safeguarded.

Orders arose to suppress those of the blood and see that they did not attain the power that was their birthright. And many groups, hungry for knowledge and power, attempted to seize the secrets of the bloodline and use the knowledge for their own gain.

Yet the power is in the blood. It is carried through birthright, and it is carried on the soul. These secrets elude the jealous cattle, who despite all their strivings could never attain this power. So we ruled from the shadows,using the very religions that raged against us to control the mass of humanity. And throughout the ages, our secret has endured, passed down among the deserving few.

And now we approach the time of the Harvest, when our power again will be known for what it is. We are children of the Dragon, the only true immortals, and by the right of our power we may choose to rule and prey upon men.

(Excerpts taken from the forums of the House of Kheperu)