China - Chiang-shih : (also called 'Kiang-shi') This terrifying vampire creature is said to be caused by either the demonic posession of a recently deceased corpse or by suicide or some other violent death. It has been documented in two forms: In one form it is a tall and murderous, walking corpse with green or white hair all over its body. This vampire has long, sharp claws, serrated teeth, glowering red eyes and foul breath which will knock you dead at twenty paces. In this form it will leap out of graves to attack people travelling at night and can also learn to fly if it survives long enough to mature properly. In its more usual form it can appear human and will not be recognised as a vampire until it does something that will give it away. For example, like the slavic vampire, it is unable to cross running water, has the ability to transform into a wolf and is allergic to garlic.

By Dr van Neümig
Published at Imbolc 2001

Throughout recorded history and probably back beyond that, the idea of the psychic vampire has haunted mankind’s dreams. Strange mystical, mythical creatures who lurked in the darker recesses of the human mind, these beings were thought to sap the energy of living mortals, reducing them, unless stopped, to shadows of their former selves. People who, for no apparent reason, became continuously tired, listless and lethargic were often thought to have been visited by vampires or evil spirits. The medieval Christian Church, always eager to give shape and form to such things as a means of keeping their congregations in line, called them incubi and sucubi, male and female forms of the evil demons (medieval psychic vampires) to which they added a sexual context. Anyone having dreams of a sexual nature were said to have been visited by either an incubus or a sucubus who planted the sinful ideas in the minds of weak mortals as a means of ensnaring them.

The psychic vampire is, of course, a very close relation to the more widespread and “popular” blood vampire that appears in literature, film and popular drama, the epitome of which is Count Dracula. The principle remains the same from physical blood-lusting vampire to psychic energy-grabbing vampires in that the Count drains the life force through the actual physical blood whereas the psychic vampire is more subtle, draining the life force by destroying the “will” of its victim. In many ways, the typical vampire scenario such as Count Dracula, casts the vampire in the role of ultimate incubus. It is a creature of the night (darkness), evil in “human” form. Its victims are invariably young, attractive women, although it is not averse to the odd male now and again should the need arise or should there be no other available source. Like its cousin, the Psychic Vampire, (who is not so fussy as to the gender of its victims) Dracula and his ilk are after your immortal soul...

© Jerome C. Krause

Countess of Transylvania, vampire: Born 1560/61;  died, August 21, 1614.

In order to improve her complexion and also to maintain her failing grasp on her youth and vitality, she slaughtered six hundred innocent young women from her tiny mountain principality. The noble Báthory family stemmed from the Hun Gutkeled clan which held power in broad areas of east central Europe (in those places now known as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania), and had emerged to assume a role of relative eminence by the first half of the 13th century. Abandoning their tribal roots, they assumed the name of one of their estates (Bátor meaning 'valiant') as a family name. Their power rose to reach a zenith by the mid 16th century, but declined and faded to die out completely by 1658. Great kings, princes, members of the judiciary, as well as holders of ecclesiastical and civil posts were among the ranks of the Báthorys.

Adopting an exalted name did not alter some basic familial preferences among lesser lights however, and in order to consolidate more tenuous clingings to influence there was considerable intermarriage amongst the Báthory family, with some of the usual problems of this practice produced as a result. Unfortunately, beyond the 'usual problems' some extraordinary difficulties arose (namely hideous psychoses) and several "evil geniuses" appeared, the notorious and sadistic Erzsébet the most prominent of them. Truly, she was evil enough to be recognized as one of the original "vampires" who later inspired Bram Stoker to write the legend of Dracula -- but unlike Stoker's story, she was real.

Unusual for one of her social status, she was a fit and active child. Raised as Magyar royalty, as a young maid she was quite beautiful; delicate in her features, slender of build, tall for the time, but her personality did not attain the same measure of fortuitous development. In her own opinion her most outstanding feature was her often commented upon gloriously creamy complexion. Although others were not really so equally impressed with the quality of her rather ordinary skin, they offered copious praise if they knew what was good for them, as Erzsébet did not accept unenthusiastic half-measures of adulation; and she was vindictive...

Rarely has any creature of mythology taken such a firm hold upon the popular imagination as has the vampire. He is a prince of the night, an erotic and sensuous being with powers beyond mortality, and a history that stretches back centuries... except that this isn't the Slavic vampire at all! No - it is the post-Dracula vampire of modern society, the iconic modern vampire. To unearth the genuine thing ('genuine' in reference to the creature believed in by the various Slavic vampire cults from at least the 13th Century to even the present day), the reader must first of all undergo an exorcism. The thing to be exorcised is the modern conception of the vampire. The reader is urged to cast aside his notions of fangs, incredible strength, the power to fly, the lack of a reflection in a mirror, an aversion to garlic, a glittering and powerful sexual allure, immortality, beauty, and the power to hypnotise. These things should be put onto a metaphorical coat-hanger - they can always be picked up again later.

The Soil of the Vampire Cults: The subject of what actually contributed to the birth of the vampire cult is a huge topic in itself, and deserves an entry of its own. Suffice to say that the Slavs who poured into the Baltic regions prior to and after the 10th Century AD were subject to various waves of Iranian religious influences - such as the Mithraic Mysteries, Manichaeism, the Paulicians, and finally the most influential of all... Bogomilism. These religions (save the Mysteries of Mithras, about which too little is known to assert much) share several things in common - a belief in soul migration, a belief in dualism (there is a persistent belief that God had two sons, and that one of them was the devil, who was responsible for creating the body of man - and thus the body is considered to be unholy as opposed to the soul), a belief in periods of time that were crossroads, times of transition (such as twilight, cock's crow, noonday), and so on. These elements are discernibly carried over into the belief system of vampire cults...