This is a re-upload of a video from last year. Check out ESOTERICA's video here: ua-cam.com/video/sF9FIPSLMeM/v-deo.html Find me and my music here: linktr.ee/filipholm Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion Or through a one-time donation: www.paypal.com/paypalme/letstalkreligion Also check out the Let's Talk Religion Podcast: open.spotify.com/show/0ih4sqtWv0wRIhS6HFgerb?si=95b07d83d0254b
I have a link in my recent postvids to my Google drive cache of a great UK show BEING HUMAN, covering supernatural vampires living secretly as regular people plus ghosts and werewolves trying to reclaim their humanity. Originally show creator had written abt emotionally mentally disabled living in housing as if normal unaffected but BBC deemed it too demeaning the jokes included so creator realized they could map magical afflictions to real issues for characters and it became a hit. I only watched offer s1-3 as they are the core fictional story, later it blows up into a $grab add things like Disney Star Wars
I'm glad you mentioned 'Midnight Mass' - a real gem among Netflix mini-series. The characters, the story, the 'angel' - all very powerful as human drama, myth, and dark satire. I'd also recommend 'The Wise Wound' by Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle. It's a book about various aspects of menstruation, but its interpretation of Dracula is quite fascinating.
Midnight Mass had some really beautiful moments, it was just a shame that the poorly done old-age makeup was not only visually distracting but an obvious spoiler of the plot twist 😬
Bravo! Informative and well presented. I used to teach Comparative Culture classes in one of the Japanese colleges I worked, and being here for 42 years now, I find that I miss traditional rural American Halloween traditions more than Christmas. I gave a very much more simplified version of this lecture for Japanese students, but another connection I had found and pointed out is that the Victorian era of Christianity in particular made a very strict and austere separation between the divine and the secular, god and nature. One of the consequences was that sexuality was so suppressed, that even table legs were covered with 'pants'' lest they suggest the bare legs of the fairer sex. It was in such a mind-set that STDs were considered divine punishment for lust, and for some, the transmissible curse of vampirism was a metaphor for forbidden carnal passions and sex, as was much of "gothic' art. I also included short snippets of the original "Nosferatu" to show director Murnau's use of the cinematic special effects of the era ... and to show that jump-sares are not as effective as other techniques to create a lingering sense of horror. The one modern vampire movie we deconstructed in detail might be surprising because it is not so popular with movie critics ... "Queen of the Damned". The metaphors were great for college kids, and even though I am more of a jazzer, I fell in love with the soundtrack.
I'm actually writing a horror novel about Vampires where my goal is to merge gothic horror, cosmic horror, and apacolyptic horror. I was hugely inspired by the vampires in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series which is like Lovecraft meets Stoker, and I always wanted to write a vampire story where they are evil, sadistic, and in your face while expressing mysticism and esotericism.
Real vampires are wickedly vile. They are reptilian humanoids who shape-shift into something that outwardly appears human. There is a reason Dracula is a Count and vampires are associated with castles. Bcuz world rulers are Japhetite, serpent seeds from Cain's lineage. They are master illusionists with little to no moral or sexual boundaries. Murder is common among them. And it is said of their race, in a general way, they have only one regret when they leave this world in death. That is, they will no longer be able to offend the Creator!
I have been obsessed with vampires for as long as ive been alive for some reason. As a kid I went trick or treating like 8 years in a row as a vampire. I like the darker versions much more than any modern "vampires are misunderstood" depictions. But I will admit I didnt hate the first Twilight movie.
@@hyperionsama oh the guy who wrote Cirque Du Freak? I might check it out. I never read any of his books but I had a friend who really liked those books.
This was a comprehensive video that I thoroughly enjoyed as I am a fan of this mythology. I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and I did want to mention a few things that were omitted. Today it is widely believed that Vlad Tepes a Prince of Wallachian origin (not Transylvania) was the actual inspiration for Stokers Dracula. This is not the case. Stoker was of Irish heratige but traveled to Scottland often before moving to London where he was the assistant manager at the Liceum Theatre. While in Scotland he visited a Library and found two books by Emily Gerard titled "Beyond The Forest". Gerard was a Lieutenants wife who was stationed in Romania. She spent three years in the country where she was fascinated by the local folklore and began to collect the stories. She telles the story of the Slavik Peasant Vampire. He is a deceased person who rises from his grave at night. He is bloated, heavy, dark, and more like a slow walking lout. He visits members of his own family, or people he knew at night and sits on their chest while in bed. His weight prevents them from breathing, and they die. He then bites them on the forhead just above where the brows meet, and sucks out all of their blood (she also refers to biting on the chest). While at the library he also saw some accountings of Vlad Tepes.Vlad was the son of Vlad I who began "The Order of the Dragon" under the enfluence of the Hungarian Emperor. It is here that the name Dracula came to life, as Dracula translates to "Dragon or Devil". The Order was created to fight the Ottomans, who were constantly raiding Romania and the Slavk nations as they were a block of land that prevented them fron acquiring the European nations. The elder Tepes fought the Turks, but eventually entered into a peace treaty by sending his two sons to Turkey (Vlad and Radu) as hostages. Vald spent his young adolescent years in Turkey. He learned some brutal tactics and methods of torture while there. As an Eastern Europan nation, Romania was deeply Christian, and their hate for the Turks was unquenchable. Vlad escaped after his fathers death vowing to return, retrieve the crown, and stop the Turks. He was successful for awhile, recaptured and escaped again. During one of the Turkish raids his wife heard a rumor that the Turks were on their way to Vlads Castle while he was gone. She jumped out of the window of the castle to her death in the revine below. This destroyed Vlad and brought his anger to a new level, where he began to impale a legion of Ottomans sending them back to Turkey with all of their heads on sticks. He also impaled almost all of his former Nobles for their traitorus behavior. It is said that he had a table set up amongst the impaled and ate his dinner while listening their moans of death. It is also said that he sometimes ate of the victims flesh. These two events contributed largly to Stokers Dracula. His hideous torturous killings were steeped in blood, and the death of his beloved wife had made him almost mad. The blood lust and the romantic and sexuality of his marriage worked their way into the story but became a more important in movies and books that would follow. The tale of Dracula has been amplified ever since. Stokers Dracula was a compilation of myth, (Emily Gerards books), history (Vlad the Impalers violent killings), and romance (the love for his wife). Stoker created a creature of nobility who was ruthless, but burdened with the loss of his wife and difficult and violent life. Stoker never stepped foot in Romania, but came to create an iconic character that still lives today with his many fictional descendants. I love your posts as well as Justin Sledge at Esoterica and Dr Angela Puka at Angelas Symposium. Sorry about the length of this.
My favourite vampire from Slavic myths is bezkost. Its name means the boneless one. You can image how it looks and acts. Do you have any gaps in your windows, doors or roof? Bezkost is going to get ya
@@АлександарСимовић-ы8д I've came across a source claiming it's a part of "Polish" mythos but considering how much borders of Poland have moved over the centuries it's incredibly difficult to say which elements of Polish culture are 100% Polish. Traditional Polish food is similar to traditional German, Rus, Czech, and Jewish food. I suspect it's similar to myths In the past people cares less about national identity and "protecting ones culture" from outside influences. If anything for most of Polish history we embraced those influences which is why Polish has shitton of adopted foreign words
Nicely done, but a little surprised you didn't mention Anne Rice's-The Vampire Lestat (et al)-an interval piece between Bram Stoker's Dracula & the Twilight saga.
I recently watched French Canadian vampire movie dubbed to English since I don’t speak French. But it was so cute and funny, I’m here recommending it. It’s called “ Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person”
That was really interesting, thank you! An acquaintance of mine once asked me about vampires and wether they pierce the skin or bite, I'd the fangs are hollow or solid. We got into such a great talk about the anatomy of a vampire 😂 again, thank you for this new lesson! Have a great day!
So, its been a year since the original, so it may just be a case of poor memory on my part, but I didn't notice anything particularly missing from this version. I would be interested in an edit list, just for curiosity's sake, lol
SHARED! ... such a different take on the subject, or else just content I've never seen before giving the impression of a new angle of study. Either way, the best I've seen in YEARS!
For me, vampires, considered as one of a small group of Classic Pop-Culture Monsters, ones with a deep mythology are alone as being interesting enough that it’s still possible to churn out cool/intriguing films and movies wherein for me personally, my attitude is like “Yeah, I’ll definitely check that out” assuming it’s not rehashing old territory. Can’t say the same for werewolves and zombies. “Let the Right One In” (the Swedish one) and the “Dracula” thing Netflix did 5-6 years ago are both really good. Aaand I really like What We Do in the Shadows. I mean, maybe it’s just a matter of taste but I can’t really watch episode upon episode and season upon season of zombie apocalypse stuff so Walking Dead is a nonstarter. 28 Days was cool but, it’s like, there will never be a compelling zombie character on par with Dracula and if there is it goes against the rules of what zombies are supposed to be, that is to say, brain dead. Teen Wolf may have been the high mark for werewolves.
I always look at the story of Nebuchadnezzar being turned into a beast as the first story of werewolves. The original vampire stories describe the creatures more as werewolves in looks.
Interesting video about one of the more interesting supernatural beings. Old school gothic bloodsuckers are cool but what about the energetic vampires, much more common today? 😉
Just finished Carmilla. It definitely setup some tropes you still see, like lesbian vampires, and although she doesn't turn into a bat, it's implied that she turns into a black cat-like creature. Worth a read.
This was interesting, I see you carry the cross as protection..... wise choice. You .... have my gratitude, for giving us this exquisite piece of history of the vampire trope.
I'm obsessed with Vampires. I watched a lot of Vampire movies when I was a child, they were terrifying back then but as I aged not so much. I think the romanticization of Vampires took the fear element away. BUT the movie 30 Days of Night was terrifying! Why? Because the theme of inescapable invasion but also.... the Vampires weren't at all glamorous and there was the suggestion that they were always in pain, always thirsty.
@@geeljire9247 I'm sorry but I'm confused, I don't understand your reply. (NOTE: I'm Australian, we don't know about ...stuff) It's not really "weird where I'm headed" as my comment is relevant to the topic and I also have the same thoughts in common with other people on this topic. Seems kind of random, your comment. LOL
@@Monkey-Boy2006He just said you should watch 40k vampires idk if that's a series or movie vyt yeh...simple asf didn't have to analyze that shit like a research paper bruh
@@abdulrrafey Yeah, hah. I've never heard of 40k Vampires and their is no explanation of it being a movie or series. I admit I may have negatively misinterpreted the last bit of that sentence, it read like he was criticising me and I couldn't understand why. Communication skills are lacking these days, simpleASFand I shouldn't have to analyze that sh*t like a research paper bruh'.
Really,UA-cam? Censoring an 18th text? 🤣 Have always been fascinated with vampire lore. Books ,movies etc. Really enjoyed your spooky presentation . Happy Halloween!
My favourite "Vampire Variant" is the Jiang Shi....I'd highly recommend the classic Hong Kong movies - Mr Vampire (1985) and Encounters Of The Spooky Kind (1980) for anyone to witness this unique depiction!
What about an episode called: "Let's talk about the Vampire Religion?" In your video about Satanism, you mention the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, both of those groups have offshoots in their organizations that are devoted to Vampires. The CoS has: The Temple of the Vampire, the ToS has: Order of the Vampyre. There is also a European group called the Aset Ka, that seems to combine the spiritual and philosophical ideology of the previous two mixed with the Ancient Egyptian religion. And there is a religious group founded by a man called Father Sebastian who makes Vampire fangs for people to wear and he wrote some books that combine religion and magic for Vampire's called the: Vampyre Sanguinomicon and a few other books. It's an interesting read, though it is more inline with the World of Darkness Vampire books from their series: Vampire the Masquerade. Now the religion that VtM created, the Ba'Hari is quite interesting and their teachings and interpretations of Lilith, Lucifer and the creation of Vampires can be found in the source book: Revelations of the Dark Mother and in my opinion that is a much better written book than the Book of Nod. The publishers at WoD also created Kindred of the East that focuses on Vampires in Asia called the Kue'Jin and instead of taking blood like western Vampires, they take it through draining you of your Chi/Prana aka Lifeforce. And their religion is focused on a Vampire interpretation of Taoism, Shintoism and Buddhism. Also in the game Vampire the Masquerade there is a sect of vampires called: The Ashirra, under which Vampires declare their faith in Allah and follow the religion of Islam, though they do their prayers at night instead of the day. Members of the Ashirra believe that redemption for the Vampires/Kindred was among the promises that The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made if they chose to follow Allah. Now if you like this idea, maybe you could spend some time of over the next year studying about it and do it for next years Spooktober/Halloween episode. Just a thought.
I'm a bit disappointed with the limited information on the myth backstory. While its true that things we could describe as vampires are basically present everywhere, the modern vampire traces its lineage relatively clearly. You basically picked up the origin with the origin of the *western* vampire which was picked up by westerners from mish-mashes of eastern european legends, folklore and incidents. But that's not really the beginning. As far as we can tell the origin of this, for lack of a better word, vampiric lineage goes back to central asia, primarily the ural mountains and pontic steppe with the Ubır/Obur/Upior/Opir and made its way into eastern europe with the Cuman migrations as well as slavic migrations. As far as I can tell the general idea is that they were reanimated corpses but also associated with witches and warlocks, with a bloated reddish appearance, divided into groups/tribes and even having battles between each other. From then on it remained with a similar name as Upir/Upior/Vupir in Eastern Europe for a while, primarily associated with unclean spirits possessing bodies and with the centuries passing and merging with other local folklore it gives birth to a large swathe of beings such as Vampir, Obur, Varcolac, Muron, Pricolici, Strigoi, Dhampir, Mullo, Pijavica, Shtriga, Vyrkolakas, Lugat. It would be primarily the Greek, Serbian and Polish legends that would be merged and cut down by westerners into the western Vampyr/Vampire. The image of Eastern European vampires differs a lot from region to region and even the common lines mentioned in the video aren't guaranteed. Some Romanian vampires for example suck blood from above the nose, in between the eyes. A lot of regions make a distinct difference between clean/unclean spirits and living/undead vampires. The modern obsession with creating specific categories for creatures also doesn't really work since a lot of myth here end up combining multiple things we nowadays consider different such as Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, Revenants, Ghosts, Zombies, Imps, Succubi and Demons
I imagine he and Sledge worked something out. If you have seen Justin‘s videos on Lilith I think he will likely be getting more into the ancient and more worldwide stuff... but we shall see. Are you a practitioner (either of physical or mental?)
Considering that Dr. Sledge is taking on the early emergence of the vampire in history, I’d suggest looking to his page to entertain the information you’re seeking
@@ViridianCrisis7 I looked into it but I found it just as unsatisfactory. He does namedrop ubir and vyrkolakas but doesn't really go into it and does the same seeminly western eurocentrism of jumping straight to the Enlightenement era and some of the recorded cases that people know and making it seem as if that's where Vampires really started when its when Western European vampire started. Honestly it does come across as a bit frustrating and dismissive of non-western european folkloric traditions esp those here in eastern europe. Yes I get its a complex topic because there's like 2-3 vampire mythos per country at least (and in some cases it goes like up to 9) but just handwaving away all of that early history as "well its complicated and uncertian so the history of vampirism starts here when western europeans hijacked it and wrote orientalist stories about eastern europe and their folklore". Imagine if people did that with say native american myths and their popularity in modern US horror media. Also if people are fascinated by legal records of supposed vampiric incidents, the Ottoman Empire was heavily bureaucratised and we have a lot of records of reports and complaints with regards to perceived supernatural incidents. There's even academic papers going over them.
@@Shahanshah_Xeno I find it a bit disingenuous to label this as Eurocentric handwaving. It’s not unreasonable to jump forward and make a quick mention of earlier instances to forgo the deep discussion necessary to unpack centuries of convoluted folklore that frequently has only a passing familiarity to the common colloquial understanding of a vampire.
Good vid! I did not find your channel until recently so thanks for re posting this! I have always wondered why even in fiction or film etc there is never any Nordic vampires! Living in Sweden I thought maybe there are some in Swedish only, asked my husband nope! He hee. *I am a Yank so I only speak English~ I lived in Hungary and visited Romania, and all the parts of former Yugoslavia and many other Slavic and Balkan countries. In the over 5 yrs living in that area I would say it was a great let down of that lack of any current people that are into the folklore or willing to share any of this culture to people they judge as "undesirables". This is NOT due to Soviets either! So I would tell people of the West, North to realize that area of Europe is not what the image is. Maybe in the 18th, 19th century it was more. Course when my father and I lived there(less than 10yrs ago mind you ie the 2010s) many people said they thought we were witches! And the much negative treatment, racism we got from Hungarians and surrounding people was due to this and not due to being non white US people. And their view is that witches are the enemy of vampires due to all witches can if they chose, to be necromancers. And well vampires are those that are living that were dead. Therefore could possibility control them. And vampires do not like anyone that could have any power over them. And vampires would traditionally protect villages from bandits, criminals, Turks etc if the locals appease him with allowing feeding. And that villagers were also expected to banish or destroy in need be, all witches. Is there any history of vampire lore in Nordic countries? I know of Draugr and such but actual vampires? I know Sweden did not have a huge class of aristocrats in their history but as I said I am speaking of fiction and film also which is more open to anything. I have been thinking of writing my own story of a Swedish vampire! He hee.
We are not being reshaped, let alone "developed" or "evolved" - we are being openly mocked. And the mortals have no idea what is about to come. In the words of Prince Nuada Silverlance: "Let this remind you, why you once feared the dark."
I really enjoyed this well presented and informative video. I totally disagree, however, that most people would associate the Universal depiction of Dracula as the norm. Even in America, let alone Europe, the Hammer movies, with Christopher Lee, were extremely popular - and still are enormously influential. I would say Lee was the most influential since the 1950s.
Varney is a far better vampire than Dracula, although the book version could do with a good edit (longer than Lord of the Rings). Varney has the Jekyll and Hyde psycho-drama that means you end up rooting for him, although he ends up with the Groundhog Day scenario time and time again. A penny dreadful with personality. A Vampire who is as much victim as the victims he targets.
Something I've always found funny in real life vampire reports is how the alleged vampire always seemed to just let themselves get staked or burned. They're always content to just sleep there, except for the occasional death shriek. Wonder how many got away with murder by taking advantage of hysteria?
You know what hit me? It would be interesting to take a deeper look at the Vampire in it's modern guise. The "being tragic only adds to my sexiness" trope. (I say that a bit mockingly, but that is humorous self-deprecation. I am very much a fan of that trope, as my forays in urban fantasy role-playing games can attest.) Heck, say what you will about Stephanie Meyer, but there is no doubt she had a huge cultural impact.
UA-cam censorship. He made a community post about it. This video is a reupload from a video from last year, this one is censored in an attempt to see if this impacts the algorithm.
I mean, Lugosi's Dracula dresses like the nobility around 1900 going to a ball - including the cape - but he is different in that he looks very creepy. In that aspect, Gary Oldman's Dracula is much more eccentric with his robe and weird hair. To Harker, Dracula (by Lugosi) looked like he just got back from a fancy party.
I'd say it is all to do with primitive man's idea of death- blood is the essential fluid that animates the human body and the corpse ceases to make blood. You have to obtain blood from the living to animate a corpse. The very same concept underlines animal sacrifice for the gods (and human sacrifice as well in some cultures.) The gods and spirits need the blood to "live." Aztecs believed the sun wouldn't rise unless it was provided with wall to wall human sacrifices.
There's actually an argument among scholars whether Vlad Dracula actually influenced Dracula. Some think it was just the name that influenced Bram and that he wasn't familiar with Vlad past his name.
I heard a version that goes back to biblical times, but it was all associated with sex, sexual fluids including blood and allegedly the knowledge that id gained from it, my guess is it was sex under the premises of knowledge?
Philip, bubby, sugar... Can you look into unitarian universalisim someday? I married someone who grew up as one and I cant for the life of me figure out what they believe..of anything.
No, Dr. Sledge is just a scholar who finds that stuff interesting. I remember watching a Zoom meeting where he said that, while he is religious, he is not superstitious.
Vlad Dracula was a good Christian in a bad spot! He was in between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire both much bigger and more powerful empires than his own. He had little choice but to employ terror tactics. Nobody would begrudge Poland doing the same in years past having no chance in a pitched war against either Germany or Russia. He wasn’t killing innocent people he just did it in a horrific way. I’m not praising him cause it takes a sick man to be able to do that stuff but you can understand why he did what he did.
Very interesting ideas here. I tend to forget that for a time, people really thought they were real. I never liked Twilight or Vampire Diaries, but True Blood is still one of my favorite series. I also read most of Anne Rices vampire novels. Personally, my favorite supernatural creatures is a werewolf.
My primary lover is openly a vampire :3 A lot of my friends do not “get it“ but some do once I explain it all. She grew up in the 80s within the goth scene and Western Esoteric Tradition, particularly some niche Wiccan movements. When I first met her I did not “get it“ either but remained very open to learning and experimenting. As things are now we both are open about it as well as protecting others from unethical practitioners such as some folk we have seen in the rave scene who on psychoactives hide away in the corner and feed on others without any cycling. We have even seen people that while others passed by passed their hands over certain chakras without the person knowing and made a pulling gesture before disappearing back into the crowd. I gained a lot of respect and love for the concept when it is about cycling and a lot of disrespect and contempt for those who merely feed.. For her the base of it all is about being aware of how one‘s consciousness impacts and interacts with the consciousness of others as well as the shared environment. For example if we are at a rave together while on the dance-floor (we both love to dance) if either the DJ or crowd is lacking confidence or rapport we help cycle the energy from the DJ through us, out through our dancing, into the dancefloor and send the vibes back to the DJ who almost always consciously gets it and begins adding to the feedback loop and getting more into their act as our wacky dancing gets wackier and wackier. Doing this gives the DJ a big smile and a confidence boost which impacts how the crowd reacts to them and to she and I dancing so hard. Many then seem to naturally pick up on the cycle and so begin to contribute to the loop of the growing vibes. It does not take long before what we have done has helping all of us in the room have a unique and augmented experience that would not have existed otherwise. We know when to stop and let things go naturally, unless the energetic consensus is a Will for Theiamania. We also practice something similar but far more complex during the act of love. I can feel an energetic pull from what people would call her “lower chakras“ which travels up her spine and pushes outwards back to me from her crown and forehead which I send down my own spine and back through her: again creating a loop. On rare occasions I consent to let her drink some of my blood, or try some of hers (we are safe, we have been together for 14 years) an we do this only every few years due to the intensity and neither of us wanting our back shoulder blades covered in scars or lancet marks, She does it in such a way that for me there is no sense of being drained, quite the opposite, I feel ecstatic! It is never much that I would physically feel drained but if she were bad at what she does I would feel so mentally. She is damn good though and it is always very memorable and I will never forget how the first time was one of the earliest moments in my life I automatically went into a part of myself I had never shown others which is my female side. It was life changing
This is a re-upload of a video from last year.
Check out ESOTERICA's video here: ua-cam.com/video/sF9FIPSLMeM/v-deo.html
Find me and my music here:
linktr.ee/filipholm
Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon:
www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion
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www.paypal.com/paypalme/letstalkreligion
Also check out the Let's Talk Religion Podcast: open.spotify.com/show/0ih4sqtWv0wRIhS6HFgerb?si=95b07d83d0254b
I have a link in my recent postvids to my Google drive cache of a great UK show BEING HUMAN, covering supernatural vampires living secretly as regular people plus ghosts and werewolves trying to reclaim their humanity. Originally show creator had written abt emotionally mentally disabled living in housing as if normal unaffected but BBC deemed it too demeaning the jokes included so creator realized they could map magical afflictions to real issues for characters and it became a hit. I only watched offer s1-3 as they are the core fictional story, later it blows up into a $grab add things like Disney Star Wars
I just love when you are narrating this with so much seriousness and gravitas and then go
"that's some spooky stuff" cracks me up
great video
“The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him”
-Van Helsing
The strength of any devil.
They will when they meet him/her!
Or get a visit from the BEK
Nice detail to put The Exorcist's face of Pazuzu in your back for a moment. Unexpected scare always is good.
I'm glad you mentioned 'Midnight Mass' - a real gem among Netflix mini-series. The characters, the story, the 'angel' - all very powerful as human drama, myth, and dark satire. I'd also recommend 'The Wise Wound' by Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle. It's a book about various aspects of menstruation, but its interpretation of Dracula is quite fascinating.
Midnight Mass had some really beautiful moments, it was just a shame that the poorly done old-age makeup was not only visually distracting but an obvious spoiler of the plot twist 😬
Bravo! Informative and well presented. I used to teach Comparative Culture classes in one of the Japanese colleges I worked, and being here for 42 years now, I find that I miss traditional rural American Halloween traditions more than Christmas. I gave a very much more simplified version of this lecture for Japanese students, but another connection I had found and pointed out is that the Victorian era of Christianity in particular made a very strict and austere separation between the divine and the secular, god and nature. One of the consequences was that sexuality was so suppressed, that even table legs were covered with 'pants'' lest they suggest the bare legs of the fairer sex. It was in such a mind-set that STDs were considered divine punishment for lust, and for some, the transmissible curse of vampirism was a metaphor for forbidden carnal passions and sex, as was much of "gothic' art.
I also included short snippets of the original "Nosferatu" to show director Murnau's use of the cinematic special effects of the era ... and to show that jump-sares are not as effective as other techniques to create a lingering sense of horror. The one modern vampire movie we deconstructed in detail might be surprising because it is not so popular with movie critics ... "Queen of the Damned". The metaphors were great for college kids, and even though I am more of a jazzer, I fell in love with the soundtrack.
Midnight Mass was finally what I always thought of as Vampires! Beautiful series!
I loved that series.
I'm actually writing a horror novel about Vampires where my goal is to merge gothic horror, cosmic horror, and apacolyptic horror. I was hugely inspired by the vampires in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series which is like Lovecraft meets Stoker, and I always wanted to write a vampire story where they are evil, sadistic, and in your face while expressing mysticism and esotericism.
Real vampires are wickedly vile. They are reptilian humanoids who shape-shift into something that outwardly appears human. There is a reason Dracula is a Count and vampires are associated with castles. Bcuz world rulers are Japhetite, serpent seeds from Cain's lineage. They are master illusionists with little to no moral or sexual boundaries. Murder is common among them. And it is said of their race, in a general way, they have only one regret when they leave this world in death. That is, they will no longer be able to offend the Creator!
I have been obsessed with vampires for as long as ive been alive for some reason. As a kid I went trick or treating like 8 years in a row as a vampire.
I like the darker versions much more than any modern "vampires are misunderstood" depictions. But I will admit I didnt hate the first Twilight movie.
Check the 12 book series by Darren Shan. I feel liked you’d love you 🙏
@@hyperionsama oh the guy who wrote Cirque Du Freak? I might check it out. I never read any of his books but I had a friend who really liked those books.
This was a comprehensive video that I thoroughly enjoyed as I am a fan of this mythology. I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and I did want to mention a few things that were omitted. Today it is widely believed that Vlad Tepes a Prince of Wallachian origin (not Transylvania) was the actual inspiration for Stokers Dracula. This is not the case. Stoker was of Irish heratige but traveled to Scottland often before moving to London where he was the assistant manager at the Liceum Theatre. While in Scotland he visited a Library and found two books by Emily Gerard titled "Beyond The Forest". Gerard was a Lieutenants wife who was stationed in Romania. She spent three years in the country where she was fascinated by the local folklore and began to collect the stories. She telles the story of the Slavik Peasant Vampire. He is a deceased person who rises from his grave at night. He is bloated, heavy, dark, and more like a slow walking lout. He visits members of his own family, or people he knew at night and sits on their chest while in bed. His weight prevents them from breathing, and they die. He then bites them on the forhead just above where the brows meet, and sucks out all of their blood (she also refers to biting on the chest).
While at the library he also saw some accountings of Vlad Tepes.Vlad was the son of Vlad I who began "The Order of the Dragon" under the enfluence of the Hungarian Emperor. It is here that the name Dracula came to life, as Dracula translates to "Dragon or Devil". The Order was created to fight the Ottomans, who were constantly raiding Romania and the Slavk nations as they were a block of land that prevented them fron acquiring the European nations. The elder Tepes fought the Turks, but eventually entered into a peace treaty by sending his two sons to Turkey (Vlad and Radu) as hostages. Vald spent his young adolescent years in Turkey. He learned some brutal tactics and methods of torture while there. As an Eastern Europan nation, Romania was deeply Christian, and their hate for the Turks was unquenchable. Vlad escaped after his fathers death vowing to return, retrieve the crown, and stop the Turks. He was successful for awhile, recaptured and escaped again. During one of the Turkish raids his wife heard a rumor that the Turks were on their way to Vlads Castle while he was gone. She jumped out of the window of the castle to her death in the revine below. This destroyed Vlad and brought his anger to a new level, where he began to impale a legion of Ottomans sending them back to Turkey with all of their heads on sticks. He also impaled almost all of his former Nobles for their traitorus behavior. It is said that he had a table set up amongst the impaled and ate his dinner while listening their moans of death. It is also said that he sometimes ate of the victims flesh.
These two events contributed largly to Stokers Dracula. His hideous torturous killings were steeped in blood, and the death of his beloved wife had made him almost mad. The blood lust and the romantic and sexuality of his marriage worked their way into the story but became a more important in movies and books that would follow. The tale of Dracula has been amplified ever since. Stokers Dracula was a compilation of myth, (Emily Gerards books), history (Vlad the Impalers violent killings), and romance (the love for his wife). Stoker created a creature of nobility who was ruthless, but burdened with the loss of his wife and difficult and violent life. Stoker never stepped foot in Romania, but came to create an iconic character that still lives today with his many fictional descendants.
I love your posts as well as Justin Sledge at Esoterica and Dr Angela Puka at Angelas Symposium. Sorry about the length of this.
Transphobic much?🙄
My favourite vampire from Slavic myths is bezkost. Its name means the boneless one. You can image how it looks and acts. Do you have any gaps in your windows, doors or roof? Bezkost is going to get ya
Sounds very octopussy to me.
Promaja!
Is that the guy who owns Amazon?
Is that from polish ethnos ? In serbian bezkost (bezkosni) means boneless ?
@@АлександарСимовић-ы8д
I've came across a source claiming it's a part of "Polish" mythos but considering how much borders of Poland have moved over the centuries it's incredibly difficult to say which elements of Polish culture are 100% Polish. Traditional Polish food is similar to traditional German, Rus, Czech, and Jewish food. I suspect it's similar to myths
In the past people cares less about national identity and "protecting ones culture" from outside influences. If anything for most of Polish history we embraced those influences which is why Polish has shitton of adopted foreign words
Nicely done, but a little surprised you didn't mention
Anne Rice's-The Vampire Lestat (et al)-an interval piece between
Bram Stoker's Dracula & the Twilight saga.
I recently watched French Canadian vampire movie dubbed to English since I don’t speak French. But it was so cute and funny, I’m here recommending it. It’s called “ Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person”
_“ Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person”_
The title is hilarious! All those words only fit perfectly together for a vampire!
@@AverageAmerican in French it’s still a mouthful (of blood amirite?) Vampire Humaniste Cherche Suicidaire.
But yeah check it out sometime! 10/10
19:38 im looking at you talking, really focused... then shift my eyes slightly and almost have a heart attack 😄so very sneaky
That was really interesting, thank you! An acquaintance of mine once asked me about vampires and wether they pierce the skin or bite, I'd the fangs are hollow or solid. We got into such a great talk about the anatomy of a vampire 😂 again, thank you for this new lesson! Have a great day!
@LetsTalkReligion could you create a video about The Creepy History of Frankenstein’s Monster
So, its been a year since the original, so it may just be a case of poor memory on my part, but I didn't notice anything particularly missing from this version. I would be interested in an edit list, just for curiosity's sake, lol
Love the content
Would love to hear a video about ibn hazm from cordoba.
Let's talk religion. ❎
Let's talk vampires ✅
Thank you so much for making a halloween video! I absolutely love your spooky series. Been waiting for it every year 😍
SHARED! ... such a different take on the subject, or else just content I've never seen before giving the impression of a new angle of study. Either way, the best I've seen in YEARS!
Agreed.
You had me at Doctor Sledge. I watch your channel and his all the time
For me, vampires, considered as one of a small group of Classic Pop-Culture Monsters, ones with a deep mythology are alone as being interesting enough that it’s still possible to churn out cool/intriguing films and movies wherein for me personally, my attitude is like “Yeah, I’ll definitely check that out” assuming it’s not rehashing old territory. Can’t say the same for werewolves and zombies.
“Let the Right One In” (the Swedish one) and the “Dracula” thing Netflix did 5-6 years ago are both really good. Aaand I really like What We Do in the Shadows. I mean, maybe it’s just a matter of taste but I can’t really watch episode upon episode and season upon season of zombie apocalypse stuff so Walking Dead is a nonstarter. 28 Days was cool but, it’s like, there will never be a compelling zombie character on par with Dracula and if there is it goes against the rules of what zombies are supposed to be, that is to say, brain dead. Teen Wolf may have been the high mark for werewolves.
I always look at the story of Nebuchadnezzar being turned into a beast as the first story of werewolves. The original vampire stories describe the creatures more as werewolves in looks.
I believe the story of Lycaon is even older
Interesting video about one of the more interesting supernatural beings. Old school gothic bloodsuckers are cool but what about the energetic vampires, much more common today? 😉
Barber is an excellent source, I absolutely love his book on the subject
Dracula (2020 Limited series) - Absolutely Phenomenal
Midnight Mass - Solid writing and amazing vampire form but a slowburner
There are few channels that I, and many others, enjoy as much as this channel.
Just finished Carmilla. It definitely setup some tropes you still see, like lesbian vampires, and although she doesn't turn into a bat, it's implied that she turns into a black cat-like creature. Worth a read.
As a sapphic that's one of my favorite books, and my favorite vampire book
This is a great presentation.. very informative !!
This was interesting, I see you carry the cross as protection..... wise choice. You .... have my gratitude, for giving us this exquisite piece of history of the vampire trope.
The video we’ve all been waiting for
Dude I was like huh I could've sworn I've seen this before and then I saw indeed it's a reupload
I'm obsessed with Vampires. I watched a lot of Vampire movies when I was a child, they were terrifying back then but as I aged not so much. I think the romanticization of Vampires took the fear element away. BUT the movie 30 Days of Night was terrifying! Why? Because the theme of inescapable invasion but also.... the Vampires weren't at all glamorous and there was the suggestion that they were always in pain, always thirsty.
Have you ever seen 40k vampires? seems kinda where ur headed
@@geeljire9247 I'm sorry but I'm confused, I don't understand your reply. (NOTE: I'm Australian, we don't know about ...stuff) It's not really "weird where I'm headed" as my comment is relevant to the topic and I also have the same thoughts in common with other people on this topic. Seems kind of random, your comment. LOL
@@Monkey-Boy2006He just said you should watch 40k vampires idk if that's a series or movie vyt yeh...simple asf didn't have to analyze that shit like a research paper bruh
@@abdulrrafey Yeah, hah. I've never heard of 40k Vampires and their is no explanation of it being a movie or series. I admit I may have negatively misinterpreted the last bit of that sentence, it read like he was criticising me and I couldn't understand why. Communication skills are lacking these days, simpleASFand I shouldn't have to analyze that sh*t like a research paper bruh'.
@@geeljire9247 Sorry mate, I grossly misinterpreted the last part of your message. 😞
Did no one watch "The Strain"? That was highly entertaining with a completely new take on the origins of vampires. Well worth a watch people.
Really,UA-cam? Censoring an 18th text? 🤣 Have always been fascinated with vampire lore. Books ,movies etc. Really enjoyed your spooky presentation . Happy Halloween!
My favorite month on this channel
My favourite "Vampire Variant" is the Jiang Shi....I'd highly recommend the classic Hong Kong movies - Mr Vampire (1985) and Encounters Of The Spooky Kind (1980) for anyone to witness this unique depiction!
Awesome movies!
My favorite is the Strigoi & I'd say it's the most frightening variant.
I love kislux that on the butterfly bag it says auguri / tanti auguri which means happy birthday
Great video, but he didn't mention another great vampire. Bunnicula!
That pu,pkin:) Thank you sir, I had a grand revelation about how dumb I am sometimes, the Lilin, or lil'un .. anyway, great video as always!
I am waiting for Nosferatu and you just drop this...ahh peace of mind
What about an episode called: "Let's talk about the Vampire Religion?" In your video about Satanism, you mention the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set, both of those groups have offshoots in their organizations that are devoted to Vampires. The CoS has: The Temple of the Vampire, the ToS has: Order of the Vampyre. There is also a European group called the Aset Ka, that seems to combine the spiritual and philosophical ideology of the previous two mixed with the Ancient Egyptian religion. And there is a religious group founded by a man called Father Sebastian who makes Vampire fangs for people to wear and he wrote some books that combine religion and magic for Vampire's called the: Vampyre Sanguinomicon and a few other books. It's an interesting read, though it is more inline with the World of Darkness Vampire books from their series: Vampire the Masquerade.
Now the religion that VtM created, the Ba'Hari is quite interesting and their teachings and interpretations of Lilith, Lucifer and the creation of Vampires can be found in the source book: Revelations of the Dark Mother and in my opinion that is a much better written book than the Book of Nod. The publishers at WoD also created Kindred of the East that focuses on Vampires in Asia called the Kue'Jin and instead of taking blood like western Vampires, they take it through draining you of your Chi/Prana aka Lifeforce. And their religion is focused on a Vampire interpretation of Taoism, Shintoism and Buddhism. Also in the game Vampire the Masquerade there is a sect of vampires called: The Ashirra, under which Vampires declare their faith in Allah and follow the religion of Islam, though they do their prayers at night instead of the day. Members of the Ashirra believe that redemption for the Vampires/Kindred was among the promises that The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made if they chose to follow Allah.
Now if you like this idea, maybe you could spend some time of over the next year studying about it and do it for next years Spooktober/Halloween episode. Just a thought.
I'm a bit disappointed with the limited information on the myth backstory. While its true that things we could describe as vampires are basically present everywhere, the modern vampire traces its lineage relatively clearly. You basically picked up the origin with the origin of the *western* vampire which was picked up by westerners from mish-mashes of eastern european legends, folklore and incidents. But that's not really the beginning. As far as we can tell the origin of this, for lack of a better word, vampiric lineage goes back to central asia, primarily the ural mountains and pontic steppe with the Ubır/Obur/Upior/Opir and made its way into eastern europe with the Cuman migrations as well as slavic migrations. As far as I can tell the general idea is that they were reanimated corpses but also associated with witches and warlocks, with a bloated reddish appearance, divided into groups/tribes and even having battles between each other. From then on it remained with a similar name as Upir/Upior/Vupir in Eastern Europe for a while, primarily associated with unclean spirits possessing bodies and with the centuries passing and merging with other local folklore it gives birth to a large swathe of beings such as Vampir, Obur, Varcolac, Muron, Pricolici, Strigoi, Dhampir, Mullo, Pijavica, Shtriga, Vyrkolakas, Lugat. It would be primarily the Greek, Serbian and Polish legends that would be merged and cut down by westerners into the western Vampyr/Vampire. The image of Eastern European vampires differs a lot from region to region and even the common lines mentioned in the video aren't guaranteed. Some Romanian vampires for example suck blood from above the nose, in between the eyes. A lot of regions make a distinct difference between clean/unclean spirits and living/undead vampires. The modern obsession with creating specific categories for creatures also doesn't really work since a lot of myth here end up combining multiple things we nowadays consider different such as Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, Revenants, Ghosts, Zombies, Imps, Succubi and Demons
I imagine he and Sledge worked something out. If you have seen Justin‘s videos on Lilith I think he will likely be getting more into the ancient and more worldwide stuff... but we shall see. Are you a practitioner (either of physical or mental?)
@@thishandleistacken A practitioner of what ??? (physical or mental what ?)
Considering that Dr. Sledge is taking on the early emergence of the vampire in history, I’d suggest looking to his page to entertain the information you’re seeking
@@ViridianCrisis7 I looked into it but I found it just as unsatisfactory. He does namedrop ubir and vyrkolakas but doesn't really go into it and does the same seeminly western eurocentrism of jumping straight to the Enlightenement era and some of the recorded cases that people know and making it seem as if that's where Vampires really started when its when Western European vampire started. Honestly it does come across as a bit frustrating and dismissive of non-western european folkloric traditions esp those here in eastern europe. Yes I get its a complex topic because there's like 2-3 vampire mythos per country at least (and in some cases it goes like up to 9) but just handwaving away all of that early history as "well its complicated and uncertian so the history of vampirism starts here when western europeans hijacked it and wrote orientalist stories about eastern europe and their folklore". Imagine if people did that with say native american myths and their popularity in modern US horror media. Also if people are fascinated by legal records of supposed vampiric incidents, the Ottoman Empire was heavily bureaucratised and we have a lot of records of reports and complaints with regards to perceived supernatural incidents. There's even academic papers going over them.
@@Shahanshah_Xeno I find it a bit disingenuous to label this as Eurocentric handwaving. It’s not unreasonable to jump forward and make a quick mention of earlier instances to forgo the deep discussion necessary to unpack centuries of convoluted folklore that frequently has only a passing familiarity to the common colloquial understanding of a vampire.
Good vid! I did not find your channel until recently so thanks for re posting this!
I have always wondered why even in fiction or film etc there is never any Nordic vampires! Living in Sweden I thought maybe there are some in Swedish only, asked my husband nope! He hee. *I am a Yank so I only speak English~
I lived in Hungary and visited Romania, and all the parts of former Yugoslavia and many other Slavic and Balkan countries. In the over 5 yrs living in that area I would say it was a great let down of that lack of any current people that are into the folklore or willing to share any of this culture to people they judge as "undesirables". This is NOT due to Soviets either! So I would tell people of the West, North to realize that area of Europe is not what the image is. Maybe in the 18th, 19th century it was more.
Course when my father and I lived there(less than 10yrs ago mind you ie the 2010s) many people said they thought we were witches! And the much negative treatment, racism we got from Hungarians and surrounding people was due to this and not due to being non white US people. And their view is that witches are the enemy of vampires due to all witches can if they chose, to be necromancers. And well vampires are those that are living that were dead. Therefore could possibility control them. And vampires do not like anyone that could have any power over them. And vampires would traditionally protect villages from bandits, criminals, Turks etc if the locals appease him with allowing feeding. And that villagers were also expected to banish or destroy in need be, all witches.
Is there any history of vampire lore in Nordic countries? I know of Draugr and such but actual vampires? I know Sweden did not have a huge class of aristocrats in their history but as I said I am speaking of fiction and film also which is more open to anything.
I have been thinking of writing my own story of a Swedish vampire! He hee.
Great video 😁
We are not being reshaped, let alone "developed" or "evolved" - we are being openly mocked. And the mortals have no idea what is about to come. In the words of Prince Nuada Silverlance: "Let this remind you, why you once feared the dark."
You should check out the lore behind Vampire: The Masquerade
My favorite Halloween 🦇
Who doesn't love 🍬
Candy and laughing with friends. Great memories.
I really enjoyed this well presented and informative video. I totally disagree, however, that most people would associate the Universal depiction of Dracula as the norm. Even in America, let alone Europe, the Hammer movies, with Christopher Lee, were extremely popular - and still are enormously influential. I would say Lee was the most influential since the 1950s.
Vampires are awesome undead creatures
Can you do the history of werewolves
Great job.
True wisdom to embellish my teenage years obsession mvnw! 😂
you have a great voice !
brilliant, nice one fella
Varney is a far better vampire than Dracula, although the book version could do with a good edit (longer than Lord of the Rings). Varney has the Jekyll and Hyde psycho-drama that means you end up rooting for him, although he ends up with the Groundhog Day scenario time and time again. A penny dreadful with personality. A Vampire who is as much victim as the victims he targets.
Something I've always found funny in real life vampire reports is how the alleged vampire always seemed to just let themselves get staked or burned. They're always content to just sleep there, except for the occasional death shriek. Wonder how many got away with murder by taking advantage of hysteria?
It is interesting just what UA-cam finds sensitive. It is almost enough to think Freud’s models valid.
Kindly make video about santos bonacci
You know what hit me?
It would be interesting to take a deeper look at the Vampire in it's modern guise. The "being tragic only adds to my sexiness" trope.
(I say that a bit mockingly, but that is humorous self-deprecation. I am very much a fan of that trope, as my forays in urban fantasy role-playing games can attest.)
Heck, say what you will about Stephanie Meyer, but there is no doubt she had a huge cultural impact.
Did anyone read the vampire books by Darren Shan? The movie adaptation was awful but the 12 book series SLAPPED
I love the vampire and all other Monsters.
brother who is behind you
17:15 Why did you bleep out the word "sex" there?
Was that an edit?
UA-cam censorship. He made a community post about it. This video is a reupload from a video from last year, this one is censored in an attempt to see if this impacts the algorithm.
I mean, Lugosi's Dracula dresses like the nobility around 1900 going to a ball - including the cape - but he is different in that he looks very creepy. In that aspect, Gary Oldman's Dracula is much more eccentric with his robe and weird hair. To Harker, Dracula (by Lugosi) looked like he just got back from a fancy party.
I’m a vampire every Halloween (and also every other day)
I'd say it is all to do with primitive man's idea of death- blood is the essential fluid that animates the human body and the corpse ceases to make blood. You have to obtain blood from the living to animate a corpse. The very same concept underlines animal sacrifice for the gods (and human sacrifice as well in some cultures.) The gods and spirits need the blood to "live." Aztecs believed the sun wouldn't rise unless it was provided with wall to wall human sacrifices.
2 minutes ago is titillating
Delightful
There's actually an argument among scholars whether Vlad Dracula actually influenced Dracula. Some think it was just the name that influenced Bram and that he wasn't familiar with Vlad past his name.
Great detective work nancy drew😂😂😂
@@TransKidRevolution your point is?
I did not know catholics were against grave opening and regarded vampires as supersition
the early vampire stories about grave chewers sounds like they were burying people alive thinking they're dead 😐
Lugosi took his name from his hometown, Lugoj, now in România 🇷🇴 land of the moroi
"Oh no, it's Italians!"
Sharing
I heard a version that goes back to biblical times, but it was all associated with sex, sexual fluids including blood and allegedly the knowledge that id gained from it, my guess is it was sex under the premises of knowledge?
Bookmark 6:41
Philip, bubby, sugar...
Can you look into unitarian universalisim someday? I married someone who grew up as one and I cant for the life of me figure out what they believe..of anything.
*if
Is the doctor from Esoterica a real occultist and does he practice real Black Magic?
No, Dr. Sledge is just a scholar who finds that stuff interesting. I remember watching a Zoom meeting where he said that, while he is religious, he is not superstitious.
I absolutely believe a person with the name@@Pazuzu4All🙂
Vlad Dracula was a good Christian in a bad spot! He was in between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire both much bigger and more powerful empires than his own. He had little choice but to employ terror tactics. Nobody would begrudge Poland doing the same in years past having no chance in a pitched war against either Germany or Russia. He wasn’t killing innocent people he just did it in a horrific way. I’m not praising him cause it takes a sick man to be able to do that stuff but you can understand why he did what he did.
Nice try but there's no excuse to turn others into vampires. The guy was sick.🙄
Shocktober 2023 😅😁
Could you please make a video about the rasta belief? I'm trying to learn more about it
There is no evidence that Stoker ever took his inspiration from Vlad.
Stoker literally named the book after him. So there seems to be at least some influence.
The variety of textures in the kislux pack is impressive. From smooth leather to textured suede, there's something for everyone.
🧛🏻♀️🧛🏻♀️🧛🏻♀️🧛🏻♀️
Very interesting ideas here. I tend to forget that for a time, people really thought they were real. I never liked Twilight or Vampire Diaries, but True Blood is still one of my favorite series. I also read most of Anne Rices vampire novels. Personally, my favorite supernatural creatures is a werewolf.
2023!!!
could we make the assumption that jesus was a vampire since he rose from the dead? and brought someone else back to life also?
🦇⚰️thankss ⚰️🦇
Title says Shocktober 2023. Should be 2024
I was just thinking that I thought it was gonna be a reference to something else
Reupload
My immersion is RUINED 😢
Description
It's a reupload because UA-cam cries about words like "sex" being uncensored. He explains it in the description and pinned comment.
🦇
Most likely a combination of disease and ghost sightings
Vampir - only serbian word used globally. And Serbia ISN'T Easter Europe.
I am more interested in if there is muslim documentation of vampires.
Censoring the word sex out of a historical quotation hit me like a brick to the head. I wish you didn't do that, it's really distracting.
Read the pinned comment. Algorithm is being annoying, he doesn't want to censor.
Blame UA-cam, the original video did not have the word censored.
Let's be clear, Bram Stoker borrowed the name Dracula, but his character has nothing in common with the eponymous voivode of Wallachia.
Why don't women date vampires? Because they're pain in the neck!
Vlad the Impaler was not the inspiration for Dracula, this is an oft repeated myth
Vlad Dracul is the inspiration for Dracula, drac in romanian means evil or demon
Vlad the Impaler was part of Drăculești dynasty also
It’s in the name
And the whole Romanian thing
My primary lover is openly a vampire :3 A lot of my friends do not “get it“ but some do once I explain it all. She grew up in the 80s within the goth scene and Western Esoteric Tradition, particularly some niche Wiccan movements.
When I first met her I did not “get it“ either but remained very open to learning and experimenting. As things are now we both are open about it as well as protecting others from unethical practitioners such as some folk we have seen in the rave scene who on psychoactives hide away in the corner and feed on others without any cycling. We have even seen people that while others passed by passed their hands over certain chakras without the person knowing and made a pulling gesture before disappearing back into the crowd.
I gained a lot of respect and love for the concept when it is about cycling and a lot of disrespect and contempt for those who merely feed.. For her the base of it all is about being aware of how one‘s consciousness impacts and interacts with the consciousness of others as well as the shared environment. For example if we are at a rave together while on the dance-floor (we both love to dance) if either the DJ or crowd is lacking confidence or rapport we help cycle the energy from the DJ through us, out through our dancing, into the dancefloor and send the vibes back to the DJ who almost always consciously gets it and begins adding to the feedback loop and getting more into their act as our wacky dancing gets wackier and wackier. Doing this gives the DJ a big smile and a confidence boost which impacts how the crowd reacts to them and to she and I dancing so hard. Many then seem to naturally pick up on the cycle and so begin to contribute to the loop of the growing vibes. It does not take long before what we have done has helping all of us in the room have a unique and augmented experience that would not have existed otherwise. We know when to stop and let things go naturally, unless the energetic consensus is a Will for Theiamania.
We also practice something similar but far more complex during the act of love. I can feel an energetic pull from what people would call her “lower chakras“ which travels up her spine and pushes outwards back to me from her crown and forehead which I send down my own spine and back through her: again creating a loop.
On rare occasions I consent to let her drink some of my blood, or try some of hers (we are safe, we have been together for 14 years) an we do this only every few years due to the intensity and neither of us wanting our back shoulder blades covered in scars or lancet marks, She does it in such a way that for me there is no sense of being drained, quite the opposite, I feel ecstatic! It is never much that I would physically feel drained but if she were bad at what she does I would feel so mentally. She is damn good though and it is always very memorable and I will never forget how the first time was one of the earliest moments in my life I automatically went into a part of myself I had never shown others which is my female side. It was life changing
The Danube Valley is not in Eastern Europe.
That's the Volga.