vil is a point of view. We are immortal. And what we have before us are the rich feasts that conscience cannot appreciate and mortal men cannot know without regret. God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately. He takes the richest and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves, dark angels not confined to the stinking limits of hell but wandering his earth and all its kingdoms." ~ Anne Rice

preternatural, malignant creature transformed from a deceased mortal and sustaining itself on the blood of the living. Having once been human and in possession of consciousness, vampires are closer in kind to human beings than any other monsters. They exhibit the reality of an asocial inner life, and embody the horror of sociopathic conduct. As a symbol, vampires are typically associated with the Earth, darkness, the moon, and the abyss, all of which are identified as feminine. Shunning the sun involves losing the male element, thus making male vampires androgynous and female vampires doubly powerful. (Definition excerpted from The Vampire Companion, copyright Katherine Ramsland)

bove all else, they are a mystery; myths, Legends, fokelore, uncertain knowledge, untold stories. But they do exist... walking among us. Be assured of that fact. In each of us, we have to discover our own definition of what a "vampyre" is, and hopefully I will provide enough information here for you to make an educated decision. The Sanguinarium (the vampyre scene) is a collection of Houses, Clans, and organizations of people who incorporate the vampyre aesthetic into their lives.

hese individuals known as "Sanguine" (vampyres) which on a part time or full time basis simulate the vampyre existence through aesthetics, such as fetishes, garb, and paraphenalia. In the Sanguinarium, vampyres when spelled with an "i" refers to the legends and myths of the vampire. When spelled with a "y" it refers to the people who incorporate the Legend into their lifestyle. Many do so by wearing black, avoiding sunlight, wearing permanent fangs, feeling strong attraction to blood, and even sleeping in coffins.

t was one hundred years ago that Dracula, the most popular vampire novel of all time, was first published. It is said that the author, Bram Stoker, was inspired by a horrible nightmare of a regal vampire rising from his tomb. For an entire century, this creation from Stoker's imagination has become the basic archetype for the way we perceive the vampire. His haunting vision of the mysterious Count Dracula struck a deep chord in the collective consciousness, not to mention the countless women who have felt a strange, uncanny attraction to the vampire. This can be seen in the adulation received by actors who played Dracula in the films, including Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella and Gary Oldman. Each of them received thousands of letters of amorous fan mail. Stoker's eerie novel is the primary reason that the vampire has become one of the greatest thriller images of the modern world. Millions of people now seek out these other worldly creatures in books, movies, and any number of mediums.

he vampire image can evoke dark passions and forbidden desires. In a strange way, the vampire provides a fantasy outlet that allows people to get in touch with their deepest inner feelings. The full intensity of these emotions is often expressed in dreams and fantasies where vampires may signify hidden yearnings for power, surrender, rebellion, romance, and other secret desires.

ampires became suave and amorous figures, suggesting the ardor of forbidden passion. Today, many think of vampires as pure fiction, a human invention without substance.  When we see these creatures in movies, they often have no reflection.  This implies that vampires are just illusions we have created, and have no basis in our true reality. The dream-like vampire may lack a reflection, but by reflecting on this being, we may perceive a mirror image of our own human desires and fears.

hat lies behind the pale skin and penetrating eyes of the vampire? Why have so many people become so enthralled with these creatures of the night?  In recent years, there have been a growing number of devoted enthusiasts who endlessly thirst for vampires in novels, movies and other outlets. Many people even wish to join their ranks. Clearly, this exotic nocturnal being can hold an uncanny grip on the hearts and minds of many. To unearth the source of the vampire's mystic power, we need to descend into the murky shadows of the subconscious. From this, a picture will emerge revealing the full allure of the vampire in all its unearthly glory. The appeal comes from many different elements that people are drawn to. There are so many dimensions to the vampire's image, that it provides an all purpose fantasy outlet.

any picture the vampire as a romantic figure, a mysterious stranger who dwells in the world of candles, moonlight, and Gothic surroundings. There are those who want to be captivated and overwhelmed by the animal magnetism of this Master of seduction. Elements of power and surrender often play a role.  The intimacy of the vampire's kiss can be desired as something special, beyond any encounter with a mere mortal.

ear is commonly associated with the vampire, but this sense of fear is often mingled with a strange compelling attraction. Some people are drawn to what is dangerous and forbidden, and the vampire can represent all the dark desires in the human soul. Blood itself suggests the powers of life and spirit, even though the tasting of blood is a great taboo. The vampire offers excitement and radical new alternatives. Those who dream and fantasize about the undead can create an imaginary escape from the drabness of ordinary life.

n another level, the vampire has the qualities of the dark rebel, the outcast, the ultimate opponent of the established order and the daylight world.  Trapped between the living and the dead, the vampire carries the tragic qualities of an outsider who does not fit in, a situation that many people can identify with. There is also the allure of immortality, the ultimate protest against death. At the same time, the vampire is tied to all the trappings of death, even to the point of sleeping in a coffin. In a sense, the vampire is the embodiment of death and its mysteries; it is the return of death in the flesh.

or some, the vampire image is so strong that they cannot always tell when the dreams end, and reality begins. Vampire dreams and fantasies have even been known to intrude into waking reality. Some people have had vivid dreams of the undead, and then awakened to find bite marks, blood stains, and even cases of the appearance of a vampire from the dream later being seen in the person's everyday life. Vampires often represent the dark side of human emotions, and have become very common in dreams as an expression of repressed desires and feelings.  Vampires may be found in dreams of passion, power, surrender, romance, fear, violence, and forbidden Love.

ndividuals have reported experiences in which physical effects remained after a vampire dream, and there are cases in which people have seen realistic visions of vampires standing at their bedside late at night, and in their waking lives as well. For example, one man believes he saw a group of vampires on the streets of Montreal who tried to communicate with him telepathically. A woman in Texas thinks she saw a vampire fly past an office window. A woman in Indiana had an affair with a man she believes was a vampire. He seemed to have a hypnotic power over people, his body was ice cold, she could detect no heartbeat, and she found bite marks on her body after being with him. 

  nce we raise the cloak of the vampire to see what dwells behind the image, we find a vast array of dark passions, primal urges and secret desires. The vampire is an intriguing figure of countless dimensions, and as such will remain a subject of eternal fascination. Why does the vampire have this strange grip on the human heart and imagination?  Explore the mysteries behind the dark curtain of the undead, and decide for yourself where the reality lies.

enturies ago, a belief spread in Eastern Europe that the dead could return to prey upon the living. References to vampires date back to Ancient Greece, when the definition referred to people ex-communicated from society, which meant certain death in those days; yet some lived. Those who did were believed to be kept alive by "evil spirits". Vampire lore richened with the discovery of the alleged ancient texts containing the story of "Lilith", putting a profound twist on the story of the "Garden of Eden" from the book of Genesis.

he relation between vampires and mummies may be closer than you thought. The oldest references to those who sought eternal Life through resurrection after death were the Ancient Egyptians. In 2,500 B.C., the first royal mummies and many glorious treasures were locked away within their tombs, fully stocked with elaborate provisions, prepared for an afterlife; and the intent of being resurrected, to walk the earth after death. This practiced belief system is known as the Isis and Osiris cult. Their mystical secrets were recorded within the walls of the Pyramids; and hence, exist today in vampyre folklore. The story of "the Queen of Egypt and her Lover" is included among the Legends, said to be the first of their bloodline, the first true "vampires", by some. Though this Queen goes unnamed, some believe she was the infamous Cleopatra, "Queen of the Nile". She was wise beyond her years..the ruler of Egypt, during the reign of Rome. She was famed for her wit and ability to speak several languages fluently; with a Goddess like enchantment over powerful men.

ampires have been generally seen as creatures of horror, but as time changes, so does the notion and implication of what is horrific. Traditionally, it was the dark forests of Eastern Europe that were appointed as being haunted by vampires. To the civilized citizens of the Western part of the continent, that was only a natural confirmation of the barbaric spirit that prevailed in the Balkans; as something both feared and despised. However, the source of most initial legends and fables is exactly that obscure part: the countries of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and parts of Poland. To this day, in many small villages the word "vampyr/vampir" or "vampyrus/vampyress" will prompt people to hastily make the sign of the cross or that against the evil eye. In fact, their faith is so deeply rooted that those that have died by dubious causes or suicide are still beheaded afterwards, and a stake is driven through the heart - the only way believed to be truly "deadly" to those creatures.

et, since empirical Western Europe did not share the deep-rooted belief in the true existence of the undead, or in some strange way considered itself immune to it. Vampiric lore took on a more artful, aristocratic presence, and its followers viewed it mainly as a way of intellectual entertainment. Beginning with the Renaissance era, art readily opened itself to the darker sides of mythology and folklore, and thus greatly exploited the ideas of witches and vampires. But it is the time of the Romantics when Gothic symbols flourished as never before.

he late eighteenth century, and then the nineteenth were filled with excellent works of dark fiction, the beginning of which is seen by many to be Lord Byron's "Fragment of a Novel", written in 1816. Still, the true beginning was not until three years later, when Polidori published his version of that short story, entitled "The Vampyre", which is the first vampire tale of any substance in the English language, and the persona of the vampire: Ruthven has inspired the themes of most literature that followed it, including James Malcolm Rymer's "Varney the Vampire" (1845), Le Fanu's "Carmilla", and finally Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897). Over time, this once terrifying superstition evolved in human imagination into the dark, romantic fantasy it has become.

ampires are composed of three parts in a symbiotic relationship: the body, the "human" soul of the vampire, and the spirit that ties the soul into the corpse and animates it. The Spirit inhabits and feeds off the vampire's blood. As the vampire grows older, it will find that it's body becomes less and less "real" and that it becomes more and more a manifestation of the spirit. Thus, old vampires simply crumble away when destroyed because their body is nothing more than a fine crystalline honeycomb, reinforced and animated by the all powerful "Spirit" blood symbiote.

pirit is a characteristic that measures the purity or "Spiritualness" of the vampire's blood. The higher it is, the more supernatural the vampire becomes. The purity of a vampire's blood increases naturally with age as the symbiotic spirit refines and replaces the physical part of the host. If the vampire feeds often and richly on fresh blood, then this process is slowed: more physical material is introduced. If the vampire fasts, then their blood grows more potent and unnatural. When a vampire creates a child, they must give away some of this spirit force and thereby, weaken themself. Vampires that understand this are loathe to do so, but many are not aware of this problem. Vampires can also give some of their spirit force away to other weaker vampires.

ampires are nocturnal; they sleep during the day because spirit activity is suppressed by the sun. It is also said that the day is masculine, while the night is feminine...the vampire's spirit is more female than male, rendering the spirit submissive in the daylight. Powerful vampires (and spirits) can act during the day, although vampires do tend to burn or catch fire if they aren't careful. A vampire may grab and kill an attacker, perhaps even drink from them.

oung vampires may not speak, walk about or otherwise stir from their resting place - except perhaps to roll out of the path of sunlight instinctively. The seasoned vampire may awake for short times during the day, and can perform some actions in a sort of sleep haze, without awakening at all. They can move very slowly under semi-conscious control; any rapid action is limited, as for lesser vampires, unless they awake. One might assume that older/high spirit vampires automatically have the "light sleeper merit".