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Vampyres


The folklore of the vampire has only a slight connection with fiction.To begin with, the standard way to become a vampire is to become bitten by one. This is only one of many ways in traditional lore, and far from the most effective. The range of potential ways to become a vampire is extensive enough that nearly any corpse was subject. In many areas of the world the bodies of the dead were automatically dug up after a year or so, checked to make sure they had decayed properly, and then buried in a permanent grave. Most people aren't aware that, throughout European history, there have been extensive and detailed accounts of bodies in graveyards being dug up, declared to be vampires, and killed.

In folklore vampires drank blood of the victims normally by biting the chest of their victims, some strangled or smothered them, while some simply spread illness and death by their presence alone. Some folk traditions hold that vampires physically leave their graves and stalk through the night similar to Hollywood movies, but this is not the most common one. Most lore suggests that what leaves the grave is not the body but a less solid, cloudy, and blurry in shape similar to a spirit. Some folklore has it that the vampire is at first soft and shapeless. The longer it lives and feeds it becomes more solid and grows bones thus making them more dangerous and harder to kill.

It is also interesting that despite all the differences in the vampire lore there are a few traits that is almost universal. Vampires can't endure sunlight and can not cross running water.

In order to learn more about vampires you must know about etheric body. Ancient Egypt was more obsessed with obtaining immortality than any other society in history. They did this by keeping the ka alive after the physical body passed. Once the physical body dies the ka fades away into the afterlife unless kept alive by preserving the physical body, and regenerating the ka. Ka is what what we call today our etheric body or life energy. Ancient Egypt has what was called a Ka Priest who would perform sacrifices every night to keep the ka spirits 'vampires' at bay. If the sacrifice was not sufficient the vampires would seek fresh ka else where causing serious consequences.

Medical Terms related to vampirism

Haematodipsia- A sexual thirst for blood.1
Hedonism- Excessive devotion to pleasure.
Hemat(o)- [Greek] Prefix meaning blood; see also words beginning with hem, hemo, or haemat(o).
Hematemesis- The vomiting of blood.
Hematidrosis- Excretion of bloody sweat.
Hematophageous- Subsisting on blood.
Hematoporphyria- (see porphyria).
Hematospermia- Blood in the semen; hemospermia.
Hemeralopia- Day blindness; defective vision in a bright light.
Hemogeneic- Pertaining to production of blood.
Hemotherapy- The use of blood in treating disease.
Lust murder- The sexual act after the murder.1
Necro- [Greek] Prefix meaning death.
Necrocytosis- Death and decay of cells. (I.e. the medical term for "rotting.")
Necrogenous- Originating or arising from dead matter.
Necrolysis- Separation or exfoliation of necrotic tissue. (This has more application in the accounts of bodies dug up in the middle ages-- and later-- where witnesses testify to ruddy or "new" skin on the supposed vampiric corpse, which later medical persons denote as being skin slippage, or necrolysis-- a normal occurrence in a decomposing body.
Necromania- (see necrophilia).
Necrophagous- Feeding on dead flesh.
Necrophagy- Parts of a mutilated corpse are eaten.1
Necrophilia- 1.) Sexual attraction to corpses.1 2.) Sexual intercourse with a dead body.
Necrophobia- Morbid dread of death or dead bodies.
Necropsy- Examination of a body after death; autopsy.
Necrostuprum- Body-stealing.1
Porphyria- A genetic disorder characterized by a disturbance in porphyrin metabolism with resultant increase in the formation and excretion of porphyrins or their precursors.


1From the book: The Natural History of the Vampire
By Anthony Masters
G. P. Putnam's Sons, pub.
New York, © 1972


All other information provided by: Encyclopedia and
Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health,
Third Edition
By Dr. Benjamin F. Miller and Claire Brackman Keane
W.B. Saunders Company, pub.
Philadelphia, © 1983.

Where do vampires come from?

  • Dead wizards
  • Werewolves
  • Heretics
  • Outcasts
  • Illegitimate offspring of illegitimate children
  • Anyone killed by a vampire
  • Suicides
  • Unavenged deaths
  • Untimely/ unhappy deaths
  • Witches
  • Murderers
  • Excommunicants
  • Robbers/ villains
  • Accursed
  • An unburied body which has had sun or moonlight fall upon it (Specifically in China)
  • An unburied body that has been leapt over by a cat
  • Those without full rights before death (Slavonic)
  • Children born or conceived on a great Church holiday. (Slavonic)
  • Still born children and unbaptised children (Rise as vampires 7 years after their death, Slavonic)
  • Any animal (including cat) that has passed over an unburied body (Slavonic)
  • Anyone who has eaten the flesh of a sheep killed by a wolf (Slavonic)
  • Perjurers, liars
  • 7th sons
  • Man born with a caul (a piece of the placenta that may become stuck to the child's head as it is born. Easily wiped off, but many cultures have interpreted it as sign, some good, some bad, of what that child will be like when grown.)
  • A pregnant woman who has been looked at (especially after her 6th month) by a vampire, her child as a great risk of becoming a vampire.
  • A shadow of a living man falling upon an unburied body.
  • A nun stepping over an unburied body.

Any of those things cover you? Admittedly, there are a lot of things there that define who might become a vampire when they are dead and/ or buried, but not all of them come from the same places. Though I tired to include specific countries or regions with their myths, when possible, so many of them have been shared and obscured that it is hard to tell where they come from. It is much easier to separate things out by regions, such as Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, though by far the largest collection of vampire lore is centered in Europe. Most scholars seem to agree that this is because of the plagues and many famines that swept repeatedly across Europe. Where there were no answers, an illness could easily be blamed on a superstitious belief. Where people were starving and quiet acts of cannibalism were taking place, it was easier to create a myth of something that arose from beyond the grave to do horrible mutilations to other bodies, rather than own up to one's deeds. Or perhaps you could even go so far as to say that vampires were born out of the nightmares induced by the horrors people were facing. Or perhaps... it's none of the above, but truth that has been obscured by myth.


How to find that vampire

Once you have a few odd things going on in your local village-- unexplained deaths, often in rapid succession; people becoming pale and weak; people complaining of being attacked by someone or something unknown; having dreams about being attacked and waking up in a cold sweat or feeling weak; or misc. unusual signs-- and you have identified the person who has recently died under suspicion of being a vampire, you need to go seek them out in their grave. There are a few certain signs to be able to tell if that corpse you unbury is just Aunt Mildred or Aunt Mildred with a will to suck the very life out of you in your sleep!

These are a few of the signs of vampirism in a dead body:

  • Holes in the ground above the grave
  • Corpse with one or more of the following:
    1. Wide open eyes
    2. Ruddy complexion
    3. No decomposition
  • Nails and hair grown out
  • Bite marks apparent on the neck
  • Shroud (burial cloth) partially or entirely devoured
  • Blood in the veins
  • Coffin containing blood
  • Apparently well fed body
  • Flexible limbs

  • In China, vampires can be identified by the greenish-white hair covering their bodies.
  • Chinese vampires also may fly, have claws, and glaring/ glowing eyes.

And if you can't quite tell which grave contains the vampire (or you fear more than one), then there are two options:

  1. Have a virgin boy ride naked and bareback on a virgin stallion through the graveyard until the horse steps on a grave and goes no further. That marks a vampire's grave. Or...
  2. Lead a white stallion through a graveyard and the grave he will not step on is the grave of a vampire.


    What to do now?
    • Unknown murder victims and persons who committed suicide were often buried out away from the town or village, along roadsides or near road intersections. This was thought to be far enough away from town to keep them 'as possible vampires' from coming back around, or to confuse them as to which direction is which so they will become lost and not come into town.
    • As a precaution, some bodies thought to have a very high chance of becoming vampires were staked or pinned into the grave.
    • The head might be severed from the body and placed between the legs or under an arm.
    • The feet and legs might be bound to prevent the body from escaping the grave.
    • The corpse may be dismembered and the pieces buried separately from each other.
    • To get rid of a known vampiric corpse, you could burn the corpse to ashes.
    • Tear out the heart.
    • Throw boiling water or oil onto the grave.
    • It was local customs that dictated the proper stake for spearing your nearest dead kin. Some included: aspen, maple, blackthorn, or hawthorn.
    • Vampiric witch doctors and/ or sorcerers had to be burnt on a moonless night or nailed to the ground.
    • As an extra preventive measure, bodies could be protected from vampiricy by burying them with a cross made of willow under each armpit, chin and chest.
    • The body could be buried face downward and deep to prevent it from knowing right side-up in the grave and escaping.
    • Drive a stake through the heart or navel. (Some say it must be done with only one blow.)
    • Put small stones or grains of incense in all the extremities so that the vampire will have something to eat when it awakens.
    • Place garlic in the mouth.
    • Millet (grains of wheat) could be scattered over the body and throughout the coffin so that the vampire, upon awakening, has to count or eat every piece in there.
    • Wild thorny roses should be strung around the outside of the coffin to make it more difficult for the vampire to escape.
    • Lay out a body several days to make sure it doesn't start acting like a vampire. (Germany)
    • Bury food with the body in hopes that will keep it satisfied.
    • Break the corpse's neck as another preventive measure.
    • Place money in the vampire's mouth


    If you should happen to get bitten...
    There are a few things you can do if you suspect you are under attack or have been attacked by a vampire:

    Drink the ashes of a burnt vampire to cure vampire-caused illnesses and to prevent further attacks.

    Remedy for attacks against children (Italy):

    1. Gospel read over the child's head while his head rests on a priest's robe.
    2. Cross of wax, blessed on Ascension Day (40th day after Easter), hung over the doorway of the house.
    3. A linen bag containing a pinch of salt hung around the child's neck.
    4. Child's hair is cut and a lock is thrown into the fire.
    5. Hinges in the house are sprinkled with holy water.
    6. Credo recited aloud 3 times.
    7. Husband/ father watches for 7 nights for the witch/ vampire.

    Or if you fear getting bitten...

    • Mix flour with the blood of a "slain" vampire and make it into a bread and eat it to prevent against vampire attacks.
    • Lay a dead cat or dog at the house's threshold-- the witch or vampire will have to stop and count every hair on the animal, but will have to flee before dawn, or get caught by the sun and die.
    • In Russia, masks were worn by mourners in funeral processions, devious routes were taken on the way back home, and the mourners did not look back as they traveled away from the grave, all in an effort to keep any body that might turn vampire from coming back to town and finding people it recognized.
    All information contained above has been taken from:
    The Natural History of the Vampire
    By Anthony Masters
    G. P. Putnam's Sons, pub.
    New York, © 1972

    Much in that book is false and can be classified as fiction. Most is old folklore... If you want to learn more about what a REAL Vampyre is, click the picture below.