67 replies to this topic

[DarkwingsDescending]

It doesn't matter. There still is no reason to call someone uneducated because of their beliefs. I don't see a problem with cultures believing in vampires and such either,  but I think many people believe in more or something different than Good Ole Gramps getting the munchies. I'm a little offended because I hear this junk all the time. Most times I let it slide, but seeing so much of it concentrated, I though I might as well voice my opinion. It's only fair.

[Etu Malku]

I practice a form of Vampyrism . . . we are alive and well all over the world.

[Eldorado]

Lethanial, on 23 November 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

    

Well this is a nice way to boost garlic sales!

With everyone reeking of garlic it's also a sure way to ruin every snogging-session in the country.

[Helen of Annoy]

DarkwingsDescending, on 03 December 2012 - 12:58 AM, said:

It doesn't matter. There still is no reason to call someone uneducated because of their beliefs. I don't see a problem with cultures believing in vampires and such either,  but I think many people believe in more or something different than Good Ole Gramps getting the munchies. I'm a little offended because I hear this junk all the time. Most times I let it slide, but seeing so much of it concentrated, I though I might as well voice my opinion. It's only fair.

Absolutely.
Everyone is entitled to their own belief, and heritage should be preserved.

Now, how about you tell UMers a story or two about vampires? I’d love to hear it. Something your grandparents told you, maybe? Something they saw themselves or some local legend from your old country?
I’m always looking forward to hear a good folk story. I promise I won’t judge, I’ll simply read and enjoy.

Eldorado, on 03 December 2012 - 05:50 AM, said:

With everyone reeking of garlic it's also a sure way to ruin every snogging-session in the country.

No, it's not. The problem occurs only if some traitor is not reeking of garlic. As long as everyone reeks, no one notices

Edited by Helen of Annoy, 03 December 2012 - 03:34 PM.

[R4z3rsPar4d0x]

Helen of Annoy, on 03 December 2012 - 03:34 PM, said:

Absolutely.
Everyone is entitled to their own belief, and heritage should be preserved.

Now, how about you tell UMers a story or two about vampires? I’d love to hear it. Something your grandparents told you, maybe? Something they saw themselves or some local legend from your old country?
I’m always looking forward to hear a good folk story. I promise I won’t judge, I’ll simply read and enjoy.






No, it's not. The problem occurs only if some traitor is not reeking of garlic. As long as everyone reeks, no one notices

That would probably be a good way to flush a vampire out, If everybodys reeking of garlic but one person may not be it might be odd

[Eldorado]

Do chicken kievs have the same effect?  I like those.

[Helen of Annoy]

R4z3rsPar4d0x, on 03 December 2012 - 09:37 PM, said:

That would probably be a good way to flush a vampire out, If everybodys reeking of garlic but one person may not be it might be odd

Definitely. No snogging with non-garlic breaths, they could be vampires

Reminds me of a real custom in some Bosnian Serbian villages. When you enter the house, they offer you a welcoming drink. Stiff drink. Not to detect a vampire, but a Muslim.
The original Serbian welcoming custom involves offering “slatko” (sort of jam), carefully served, with little consuming ritual to be followed. Good host guides you through it. Very cute piece of old times to experience.
This other ritual with hard liquor is not so cute when you know what its purpose is. It’s also quite useless because Bosnian Muslims are not that prude about alcohol.
Anyway, since I didn’t want to have a generous shot of fruit brandy on empty stomach, they thought there could be something Muslim about me. War was just about to break out and it was the face of my hostess that made me realize the war will break out. It wasn’t just a damn shot of brandy, it was the chasm suddenly opening between us.
Damn the history and damn the interesting times.  
Maybe I should have kept that for myself, but somehow it fits into this topic. Useless things people do to repel someone who isn't who they think he is.  

Eldorado, on 03 December 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

Do chicken kievs have the same effect?  I like those.

Oh, no. Only raw garlic repels vampires.  
So while cooked garlic keeps some of its antibacterial, fungicidal, blood pressure lowering and other properties, it loses its magical properties.

Magic doesn’t yield to common sense. So for magical protection, you don’t have to actually consume garlic, you can simply carry a clove in your pocket.
But that’s not how it’s done by the old belief, what you really need is a sharp, pointy knife or an axe and you have to either hit the exact spot on the back of the vampire’s neck, either chop his whole head off. The upside is, vampires are thought by some Slavic tribes to be only sacks made of human skin, full of blood, so it’s actually easier to chop their heads off. It’s questionable if such vampires have the soul of the former inhabitant of that body, it’s possible that such sack of blood is not a person anymore, but moves on devil’s remote. Or something.
Others believe vampire’s weak spot is in the abdomen, or right in the heart, and that’s why “killing” a “vampire” would turn into massacre fest. People were simply not sure what exactly is the right way, so they’d apply it all. Everything anyone ever heard, with every tool or weapon they had. Stab, pierce, chop, burn, pour holy water... hell, let’s add some stones on the dismembered, charred and blessed remains to make sure he won’t creep out again.

Somehow, that thoroughness unsettles me more than reports of possible werewolves that could be only wild boars or vampires that could be only regular ghosts.

[R4z3rsPar4d0x]

Helen of Annoy, on 04 December 2012 - 05:49 PM, said:

Definitely. No snogging with non-garlic breaths, they could be vampires

Reminds me of a real custom in some Bosnian Serbian villages. When you enter the house, they offer you a welcoming drink. Stiff drink. Not to detect a vampire, but a Muslim.
The original Serbian welcoming custom involves offering “slatko” (sort of jam), carefully served, with little consuming ritual to be followed. Good host guides you through it. Very cute piece of old times to experience.
This other ritual with hard liquor is not so cute when you know what its purpose is. It’s also quite useless because Bosnian Muslims are not that prude about alcohol.
Anyway, since I didn’t want to have a generous shot of fruit brandy on empty stomach, they thought there could be something Muslim about me. War was just about to break out and it was the face of my hostess that made me realize the war will break out. It wasn’t just a damn shot of brandy, it was the chasm suddenly opening between us.
Damn the history and damn the interesting times.  
Maybe I should have kept that for myself, but somehow it fits into this topic. Useless things people do to repel someone who isn't who they think he is.  






Oh, no. Only raw garlic repels vampires.  
So while cooked garlic keeps some of its antibacterial, fungicidal, blood pressure lowering and other properties, it loses its magical properties.

Magic doesn’t yield to common sense. So for magical protection, you don’t have to actually consume garlic, you can simply carry a clove in your pocket.
But that’s not how it’s done by the old belief, what you really need is a sharp, pointy knife or an axe and you have to either hit the exact spot on the back of the vampire’s neck, either chop his whole head off. The upside is, vampires are thought by some Slavic tribes to be only sacks made of human skin, full of blood, so it’s actually easier to chop their heads off. It’s questionable if such vampires have the soul of the former inhabitant of that body, it’s possible that such sack of blood is not a person anymore, but moves on devil’s remote. Or something.
Others believe vampire’s weak spot is in the abdomen, or right in the heart, and that’s why “killing” a “vampire” would turn into massacre fest. People were simply not sure what exactly is the right way, so they’d apply it all. Everything anyone ever heard, with every tool or weapon they had. Stab, pierce, chop, burn, pour holy water... hell, let’s add some stones on the dismembered, charred and blessed remains to make sure he won’t creep out again.

Somehow, that thoroughness unsettles me more than reports of possible werewolves that could be only wild boars or vampires that could be only regular ghosts.

What I have trouble with is that they think this vampire is all nicely dressed and stuff, I mean sure It would make it easier to get into peoples houses If you had to be invited in,  But I mean in my mind a vampire is a plague type of disease and they wouldnt be dressed so Nicely, they would be more like animalistic creatures.

[Helen of Annoy]

R4z3rsPar4d0x, on 04 December 2012 - 07:14 PM, said:

What I have trouble with is that they think this vampire is all nicely dressed and stuff, I mean sure It would make it easier to get into peoples houses If you had to be invited in,  But I mean in my mind a vampire is a plague type of disease and they wouldnt be dressed so Nicely, they would be more like animalistic creatures.

Exactly.
After all, Vlad Tepes, Romanian count that was the inspiration for modern Dracula, certainly wasn’t dressed in tux or – god forfend – shining in the light. Maybe Vlad and his vampiric offspring follow fashion to suit the socially acceptable image of current era (who in their right mind would let a guy in the armour inside their house in the middle of the night?), but traditional vampires usually are dressed in their funeral clothes. Which makes them easy to spot and too eerie to invite anywhere.

There are many versions of folk images of vampires, and they are in some places the same or very close to werewolves.
From actual people you used to know before they un-died, over more-less humanoid (pointy ears, mind you), then more-less hairy entities, to hardly material entities.  
They are also shapeshifters, though that ability varies too. Some can take forms of animals, some can even turn into inanimate objects, like barrels or haystacks (I’m as befuddled as you are with that turning-into-haystack superpower).
For example, in Herzegovina, it was a sure sign you have an undead preying on you if the noises can be heard from your wine cellar at night. Now, that I get. Housekeeper must kill the vampire that is rolling around among barrels, so he doesn’t attack someone. In other words, whack the guy that has broken into your cellar and then say with straight face he was a barrel at the time you hit him.
It doesn’t work like that anymore, of course.

It’s interesting you mentioned you see vampires as a type of plague. There’s strong resemblance between vampires and embodied plagues in folk descriptions - expressionless or with expressions inappropriate for the specific moment, more or less determinably skewed in appearance (dimensional shift, anyone?), too fast, too slow, appearing at night, having powers to go unnoticed or put living beings to sleep, leaving no tracks, leaving animal tracks, definitely leaving track of dead bodies...  

In some areas, the plague is Kuga (Plague), an old, scary woman that comes at night to inspect the house and if she finds it untidy, she will take lives of those who live in it. Fresh water in clean bowl, combs and clean towels, preferably nicely embroiled, were left for Kuga at tables, like Westerners today leave cookies for Santa.
Only Santa won’t make you die in boils if you fail to present those cookies. But he evolved in the same way Kuga or vampires did. Only he evolved in modern, consumerist times, while deathbringers evolved in stern old times of constant epidemics, wars and barrels rolling in the night

Edited by Helen of Annoy, 04 December 2012 - 08:08 PM.

[R4z3rsPar4d0x]

See my idea is that vampires would not just blend in with society because they have characteristic differences than us, so they would mainly come out at night and feed then.  But have you read the series Guillermo del Toro has about vampires? I think its called The Strain Its fairly good in my opinion

Edited by R4z3rsPar4d0x, 04 December 2012 - 10:19 PM.

[Lava_Lady]

Etu Malku, on 03 December 2012 - 01:10 AM, said:

I practice a form of Vampyrism . . . we are alive and well all over the world.

What is this form of vampirism, if you don't mind explaining.  I'm curious.

[Etu Malku]

Lava_Lady, on 05 December 2012 - 12:56 AM, said:

What is this form of vampirism, if you don't mind explaining.  I'm curious.

When practicing Left Hand Path Magick/Ritual it is essential to use the energy from what many would consider ‘negative’ archetypal imagery. Examples would be Ahriman, Lilith, Azazel, Tiamat, even the fictional Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos (Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, etc). Predatory Spiritualism is harnessing the life-energy of these archetypes to further the Magick/Ritual.

[Lava_Lady]

Etu Malku, on 05 December 2012 - 01:06 AM, said:

When practicing Left Hand Path Magick/Ritual it is essential to use the energy from what many would consider ‘negative’ archetypal imagery. Examples would be Ahriman, Lilith, Azazel, Tiamat, even the fictional Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos (Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, etc). Predatory Spiritualism is harnessing the life-energy of these archetypes to further the Magick/Ritual.

Ok, in layman terms, does it mean you are taking energy from the archetypes to use in spells?  Forgive me of I'm using incorrect terminology, I'm just trying to learn this.

[Antilles]

Round the vamps up and send them to Afghanistan.

Couldn't hurt.

[Etu Malku]

Lava_Lady, on 05 December 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

Ok, in layman terms, does it mean you are taking energy from the archetypes to use in spells?  Forgive me of I'm using incorrect terminology, I'm just trying to learn this.

LOL! I guess I didn't have to overcomplicate my explaination!