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It’s Hard to Keep a Good Vampire Down, by Brian Righi

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

For many of us, the mere mention of the word "vampire" evokes images of pale Romanian counts with thick Eastern accents, slicked back hair, and tuxedo suits complete with opera capes. Younger generations might instead picture handsomely brooding teenage vampires more in keeping with a modern interpretation of the Byronic hero of older literary traditions. In either case, our images of the creature are often culled from the movies with which we grew up and that, for the most part, shaped our understanding of the archetype. Yet, whether we grew up loving or hating them, we often see vampires as either the product of entertaining fantasy or as a part of the colorful yet outdated mythos of our ancestors. We like to think that we've tamed the vampire this way, laid them to rest, if you will, in our modern age of science and reason, and that we can confidently scoff at the idea of a creature that drinks the blood of the living. Given such a view, it might surprise you to learn that in some parts of the world today the belief in real vampires or vampire-like creatures continues as strongly as it ever has.

For instance, in certain regions of the American Southwest, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, local inhabitants believe in a bloodthirsty creature known as el chupacabra, which in Spanish means "the goat sucker." Eyewitness accounts claim that the elusive beast stands approximately four feet tall, with grey, reptile-like skin, glowing red eyes, sharp fangs, and is often accompanied by a foul, sulfuric stench. It's frequently reported in rural areas, where it preys upon livestock during the night, attacking its victims and draining their blood. In most cases little remains as evidence of the attack other than three odd puncture wounds on the chests of the animals and unidentified three toed tracks at the scene of the crime. While its victims are primarily smaller livestock, such as chickens, goats, and sheep, they have been known to prey on cattle and other larger animals, with even a few unconfirmed reports of attacks against humans.

The first recorded sightings occurred in rural areas of Puerto Rico in March of 1995, but rumors of the creature are said to date back to the 1960s. Perhaps the most sensational claims occurred in the fall of 1995, when reports of bizarre attacks began surfacing from the town of Canovanas in northeastern Puerto Rico, where as many as one hundred and fifty animals and pets were said to have been killed by the creature. Over time the bloody slayings continued, spreading to other parts of the world, including the United States (in the spring of 1996 numerous animals were reported drained of blood in a rural area northwest of Miami, Florida). Soon after, sightings flooded in from the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and even as far away as Queensland, Australia. In each case the facts are the same: livestock are found dead with strange wounds and obvious blood loss, area residents are stunned and frightened, and the shadowy creature known as el chupacabra has disappeared back into the night from which it came, leaving in its wake mysterious deaths and puzzling tracks. The prevalence of such sightings has become so widespread, in fact, that renowned writer and cryptozoologist Loren Coleman states that el chupacabra is "the single-most notable cryptozoological phenomenon of the past decade."¹

While early beliefs in vampirism found their most fertile ground in the dark woodlands and bleak mountain villages of eastern Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, vestiges of the age-old superstition still leak out today from remote rural areas barely touched by modern urbanity. In 2004, in the tiny hamlet of Martotinu de Sus, Romania (just one hundred miles southwest of Bucharest) a man named Gheorghe Marinescu was arrested for desecrating the corpse of his brother-in-law Petre Toma, who he believed was a revenant returned from the dead to prey upon the living. According to Dr. Timothy Taylor of the University of Bardford in England, who investigated the case first-hand for an article entitled "The Real Vampire Slayers," Petre Toma died shortly before Christmas 2003 at the age of 76 years old. By most accounts he was thought to be a good man, but like most farmers he was given to strong drink and a hard life. After his death members of the Marinescu family became unexpectedly ill, and Toma's niece Mirela Marinescu claimed that she suffered from nightmares in which her dead uncle visited her at night and fed from her heart.

Determined to save his family from the evil menace, Gheorghe and five relatives, fortified with homemade schnapps, disinterred the body of Petre six weeks postmortem. After finding the traditional signs of vampirism, including fresh blood in the body and around the lips, they cut the chest cavity open with a scythe and removed the heart with a pitchfork. From there Dr. Taylor reports "[t]he men took the heart, spiked aloft, to the crossroads outside the village. There they roasted it over a brazier and, as far as I could understand, stuffed glowing coals into the ventricles. Held up to the night sky, the heart shed charred flakes that were caught in a tea towel."² The ashes were ground up and mixed with water for the niece to drink, after which it is claimed she made a full recovery.

Macabre scenes such as this were not new to the region, but when the daughter of Petre Toma complained to authorities the police arrested Gheorghe and the other participating relatives and sentenced them to six months in jail for the unlawful exhumation (their sentences were later commuted). The group of "vampire slayers," on the other hand, believed they had committed no crime and claimed instead that they were saving lives and following an ancient tradition handed down to them from their fathers and practiced still in many other villages throughout the region.

Yet, we would be remiss if we thought that tales of vampires only occurred today in rural, faraway places ruled by peasant superstitions. A case in point occurred in late December of 2005 in the Ward End area of Birmingham, England. Rumors began to circulate that a man, later dubbed by the press as the "Birmingham Vampire," was stalking the environs of Glen Park Road biting people. The story goes on to claim that the vampire bit a man walking down the street and then several other pedestrians who came to his aide. One woman was said to have chunks missing from her hand after the attack. Following the incident the vampire was said to have walked down the road knocking on doors and biting anyone who answered.

While no police reports chronicling such an attack were ever filed and no one was ever admitted to the local hospital with the bites described in the alleged attack, the populace nonetheless flew into a panic. The local newspaper, the Birmingham Evening Mail, stated that they were inundated with calls from terrified residents who believed that they had caught a glimpse of the vampire yet none of which provided any solid leads.³ People refused to answer their doors unless they knew the caller, and parents escorted their children to and from school personally. For days the Ward End was ripe with tales of vampires in what today has been dismissed as a classic example of mass hysteria and shelved away by authorities as an urban legend.

This, however, wasn't the first account of vampires roaming modern-day England. On February 6, 1970, a letter to the Hampstead and Highgate Express from a man named David Farrant, who claimed to have seen a grey figure wandering the cemetery of Highgate, London at night, touched off a flood of reports from local residents who believed the burial grounds haunted. Soon after, a second man, Sean Manchester, claimed that the figure was that of a vampire who had been buried in the cemetery long ago and was recently raised by the ceremonies of modern Satanists who had infiltrated Highgate.

The media loved the story, as both men went on to make claims that they would seek out the lair of the vampire and end its evil reign on exactly March (Friday) 13th, 1970. Other vampire hunters, eager to get in on the action, also arrived on the scene and broke into the cemetery, causing a great deal of vandalism despite the best efforts by local police to keep them out. Both David Farrant and Sean Manchester went on to write books emphasizing their role in the macabre affair, and the story is even believed by some to have inspired the Hammer Horror film Dracula A.D. 1972 with Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.

We like to think that vampires are merely the stuff of bedtime boogeymen meant to titillate and entertain on cold, dark nights, but never the real flesh and blood monsters that our pitchfork- and torch-carrying ancestors feared. Yet, as we have seen, the image of the vampire is indeed alive and well, and continues to be feared as a real threat in certain regions of the world today, popping up in some of the most unexpected places. The belief in vampires is as old as humankind itself, and the notion that they can so easily be resigned to the realm of mere entertainment is a foolish one indeed. After all, it's hard to keep a good vampire down.

Source Notes

1. Herman, Marc. "El Chupacabra." The Cryptologist: Accessed November 29, 2011.
2. Taylor, Timothy. "The Real Vampire Slayers." The Independent, October 28, 2007.
3. Jefferies, Stuart. "Reality Bites." The Guardian, January 18, 2005.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012. All rights reserved.

My father keeps harping on me for not believing in Satan. He is Roman Catholic, and Satan is a big part of his religion. I told him that I choose to praise the Creator and enjoy the Creation instead, but would like to say something he would believe so he can free himself from worrying about evil all the time. Can you help?

- Dorota

Dreamchaser:

As your father is zealous in his Roman Catholic beliefs, you're not going to be able to change his mind about them with some magical statement.

Besides, it's important to recognize that his beliefs are probably just right for his soul at this time in this life. He may not be meant to see things your way in this lifetime. He also has free will, and could choose to never see things your way. Just because he does not see things as you do does not mean that he is not being just as true to himself as you are.

It's very hard to watch people who do not "live on the same plane" as we do.
We naturally want to change them, and believe that doing so would change the world for the better.

We want to shine a light on how their fear, doubt, lack of faith, and reliance on outside sources of support and guidance are limiting their experience of life. Despite all of this, we must respect their choices and their personal spiritual paths.

In my line of work, I often find myself telling a client the same thing month after month, year after year. I just keep repeating the truth. Eventually, most of those clients will have a "Eureka moment" when they finally hear that truth and filter it into their consciousness and being. It is great fun for me to watch when that happens.

You need to just continue radiating YOUR truth. The best way to lead is by example. Live your life with a great sense of responsibility for your actions. Be the best person you can be. In time, he will see by your actions that you are living a "good" spiritual life. Let your actions speak for your truth.

Above all, recognize that your father is standing very strong in what he believes to be important, and give him some credit for his convictions. Respect his right to believe whatever he wants to believe, even if you do not agree with it.

Now it's time for a brief history lesson. Before the Crusades, there were the country dwellers. These people were later renamed "pagans" by the Crusaders. They were persecuted for worshipping in the Old Ways.

One hunting method that these country dwellers employed involved tying antlers to their heads. They would then move very slowly into a herd so they could easily hunt game. When they killed an animal, they would give thanks to the "God of the Hunt." He was depicted as half man, half deer; he had cloven feet and antlers (horns).

The Crusaders took this "God" and turned him into a vile and evil creature. Basically, everything the country dwellers did was retooled into something that was considered "evil." The Crusaders also gave this pagan god of the hunt a new name: the devil.

I wish for you what the Crusaders lacked: acceptance of ALL belief systems.

*****

Astrea:

"The Book of Enoch," one of the apocryphal texts left out of the Bible, can offer us an enlightening view of all the angels, including Satan. Though it's just another book of stories, it helped me view this subject in a new way.

Your dad might never read it, but I highly recommend that you do so you have some ammunition when this Satan discussion arises. If your dad is open-minded enough to read it, it would help him understand that Satan is just a character in a story designed to explain the nature of good and evil.

What can you say to your dad so he's not so obsessed with evil doings? I suggest you try this: Who IS this devil, anyway? Where is he? Does he have an office? Is he evil, personified? Where is the proof of that?

Jesus was a person in history; we know he lived, walked, taught and died here. Where is the devil's existence recorded in history? Remind your dad that there is no proof that the devil ever existed.

The only satanic force in the world is the evil we allow into our own hearts and minds. If we "rebuke" Satan as St. Michael the Archangel did, he shouldn't be a bothersome part of our lives at all.

No doubt there IS evil in the world, but it is created by MAN. Satan is an EXCUSE. You're probably too young to remember when people said, "The devil made me do it" and people actually accepted that. Doesn't that sound SILLY?

People do what they do because they WANT to do it. There are evil people on Earth, and there always will be, but they are evil on their own!

I don't know why some Christians are so fixated on Satan. I wish they would realize that sending him so much energy by worrying about what he's up to is just plain foolish. My daughter-in-law is a fundamental Christian (and a real challenge for our family!), and even SHE agrees with that. She says you have to "close that door" to keep Satan out of your life.

Ever since my Daddy accused her of being "a devil worshipper because you talk about him so much'" she's lightened up on that subject. You could try saying THAT to your dad.

Ask him to replace his Satan talk with God talk for a week, and if he manages to do it, ask him if he feels better about life. I'll bet he does! By speaking of blessings and focusing on the divine instead of talking about Satan and wallowing in negativity, his whole attitude on this subject may change.

While it's admirable that your dad wants to fight Satan, as a Roman Catholic, he's got a whole pantheon of saints and angels to do that job for him, so if he really believes in all of that, he shouldn't EVER be worried!

You're brave to try to change his mind. If you manage it, I'm sure the whole family will benefit from the blessings that follow.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.