A Christian's View On Undead Vampires (Strigoi) · Cadaveribus Sanguisugis

Throughout the whole vast shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, so dreaded and abhorred, yet endowed with such fearful fascination as the vampire; who is himself neither ghost nor demon but who partakes of the dark natures, and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both. Around the vampire have clustered the most sombre superstitions, for he is a thing which belongs to no world at all. A pariah even among demons, foul are his ravages; gruesome and seemingly barbaric are the ancient and approved methods by which folk must rid themselves of this hideous pest. Even in this twentieth century in certain quarters of the world, in the remoter districts of Europe itself, in Transylvania, Slavonia, the isles and mountains of Greece, the peasant will take the law into his own hands and utterly destroy the carrion who - as is yet firmly believed - will issue at night from his unhallowed grave to spread the infection of vampirism throughout the countryside.
Montegue Summers

What are true vampires? Afflicted people or demonic corpses? Should they be praised and admired, or detested and hunted? Let us delve into the deep history and separate the folklore and real life accounts from the romanticized fictional portrayals…

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Why are vampires associated with the demonic most of the time? I mean demons are evil and don’t drink blood while vampires do because they need to survive not because they are evil. [Quora question]

Actually demons do have a very distinct attraction to blood. It gives them immense power. Seán Manchester once told me that “demons have no real body of their own, but they can employ the smallest drop of blood to energize and assume a tangible form, though it is not their true and rightful body”. Montague Summers in his book The Vampire: His Kith and Kin seems to echo a very similar sentiment and lists numerous occasions in cultures far and near where it is believed that evil spirits feed off blood.

Curiously this on a few occasions somehow tied in with the dead stirring in their graves or ghosts coming back to haunt the living.

It is also a sentiment expressed by a number of clerics and paranormal experts today. Here is a webpage that talks about it.

Demons and Blood are a combination that produce a very powerful demon

There is a very great significance of blood in Satanic and occult rituals. Blood is believed by practicioners to open portals or gateways which could grant a demon considerably greater influence over the material world.

Blood - Occult World

Many witches in the Cabal and other traditions that follow the Black Path firmly believe in things such as lichdom and corpse raising, as these faiths tie in closely with demon worship it helps to establish a connection between demons and the dead:

Quest for immortality

Necromancy - Occult World

Demons, being unclean spirits, are oft said to gravitate towards corpses and love the presence of decaying flesh. Apparently the seemingly far fetched notion that demons can reanimate the recently dead and possess them in order to prank or torment the living is not remotely unheard of:

Devilish Machinations & the Undead

Now back to the question. Why are vampires associated with demons? Because their recorded behavior and weaknesses in the original folklore highly suggests that they are entirely malevolent, if not truly demonic. The earliest mention of them ever being good, or at least good-looking, was a fictional poem written by John Polidori titled The Vampyre:

Vampire’s rebirth: from monstrous undead creature to sexy and romantic Byronic seducer in one ghost story

Unlike the English aristocratic vampire, modelled on Lord Byron, these early folkloric vampires are peasants and almost always tend to appear en mass like modern-day zombies.

They are often reported deliberately causing more pain than neccesary, not just physically but psychologically as well. They are said to mock and laugh at their victims as they torment and slowly drain the life out of them, many of which are family members and loved ones. In fact vampires always attack those closest to them first. They have never been shown displaying any kind of remorse nor any attempt to save or protect anyone or anything. Neither have they shown any interest in human passtimes such as listening to music or wearing new clothes. They are only ever seen wearing what they were buried in and only ever come out of their graves to cause significant harm. Nothing more.

You are probably thinking “ but what about all those movies that feature good vampires, surely that’s evidence!.

Well, let me put it like this…which has the greater chance of being true: well attested cases of alledged vampire attacks and a plethora of chillingly similar folktales scattered across the entire globe, all written and orally passed down by people who claimed to have encountered such phenomena, or on the other hand some handsome fictional race that Anne Rice dreamed up, which she did not claim to have ever encountered in real life and knew of no one who did?

The 18th century philosopher, Jean Jacques Rosseau, wrote: “If ever there was in the world a warranted and proven history, it is that of vampires: nothing is lacking, official reports, testimonials of persons of standing, of surgeons, of clergymen, of judges; the judicial evidence is all-embracing.”

John Heinrich Zopfius in his Dissertation on Serbian Vampires , 1733, says: “Vampires issue forth from their graves in the night, attack people sleeping quietly in their beds, suck out all the blood from their bodies and destroy them. They beset men, women and children alike, sparing neither age nor sex. Those who are under the fatal malignity of their influence complain of suffocation and a total deficiency of spirits, after which they soon expire. Some who, when at the point of death, have been asked if they can tell what is causing their decease, reply that such and such persons, lately dead, have risen from the tomb to torment and torture them.”

With all the countless reiterations in popular culture the actual history behind the tradition is often overlooked. Yet if you look hard enough you will find what might just turn out to be, or at least to have been, a terrifying reality.

The sheer number of names in countless different languages for what is arguably the same creature is astounding. We have Eastern European words such as:

Krvoijac, vukodlak, wilkolak, varcolac, vurvolak, liderc nadaly, liougat, kullkutha, moroii, strigoi, murony, streghoi, vrykolakoi, upir, dschuma, velku, dlaka, zaloznye, nosferatu

Then in other cultures we have: draugr, aptrgangr, nachzehrer, aufhocker, blutsaugar, upyr, ghoul, asanbosam, aswang, manaangal, Jiang shi, vetala, bhauangkara, striya, estrie, empouse, bruja, bruxa, callicantzaro, cihuateteo, edimmu/ekimmu, fifollet, glaistig, impundulu etc…

In fact the names for vampire-like beings fills the entire alphabet. There is scarcely a culture in the world that does not have some sort of undead myth spanning back hundreds if not thousands of years.

List of vampires in folklore and mythology

According to Eastern Orthodox theology, a ‘real’ vampire is basically a demonically possesed corpse that gorges itself on blood like a disgusting leech. Definitions vary but that’s pretty much the gist. I mean all the steriotypical hallmarks: extreme aversion to crosses, being burned by holywater, unable to cross running water ( baptism symbology ), unable to leave it’s grave on a Saturday ( the Eastern Sabbath ), reanimating three days after death ( a mockery of the Resurrection of Christ ), and even garlic being a strong repellent are all big indicators of something that is inherently demonic, if not a demon itself.

Garlic is used in many cultures to ward off evil spirits. Both the Ancient Egyptians and the Israelites found it to be very effective as protection against demonic forces.

No matter where you go, vampires in the original folklore are all hideous abominations that kill and torment without conscience. This is attested by countless real life reports throughout history. If they do turn out to be real, you do not want to run into one—much less become one.

On the bright side only necromancers, black magicians, notably evil people, suicides, the excommunicated, and occasionally those killed by another vampire ever really seem to turn. Turning from a mere bite is uncommon and there is never any mention of drinking vampire blood. So your chances of becoming one in the first place would probably be slim:

CREATION OF THE VAMPIRE

Damien Cowl’s answer to What is the biology of a vampire?

Dæmonica Manifestatior: Cadaveribus Sanguisugis - YouTube

THE ORIGIN OF THE VAMPIRE

HOW TO RECOGNIZE AND DESTROY THE VAMPIRE

Exploring the Highgate Vampire Case

† Seán † Manchester † Vampirologist †

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What is the Biology of a Vampire?

First off, vampires ( cadaver sanguisugis ) are not a species. Nor is the vampiric condition caused by a pathogen or any other natural occurrence. Instead the vampire is purely the product of demonic manifestation.

On a materialistic “biological” level a vampire appears to be nothing more than a corpse that has been dead for some time. The only way to tell them apart is a state of arrested decay (even in conditions that would cause it to be otherwise, and when indeed surrounding bodies that were buried at around the same time are reduced to bones), profoundly rapid growth of the hair and nails, and canines that are only slightly elongated but razor sharp to the touch. It is also said that a vampire’s skin is somewhat harder and stretched taut. However due to the fact that we are dealing with the supernatural and not the material world, any biological or otherwise scientific cause or mechanism for any of these changes can scarcely be found.

The closest we get to science when it comes to vampires is the fringe science of paranormal research. Due to occult studies in the field of vampirology, it has been acertained that vampirism is caused by demonic manifestation and not the soul of the person returning from the grave (much less any biological cause such as a retrovirus). Please allow me to further define the laws and processes that govern the vampire’s unnatural existence based on what the experts have discovered:

State of Undeath

The Lich is not only a being of undeath in the truest definition, but an animated, intelligent and malevolent promise of a future everlasting in a state of perpetual biological and metaphysical stasis augmented and bolstered by the unforgiving current of death.

– The Quest for Immorality

Whereas all living beings are ‘natural’ and thus have natural biological processes, vampires have processes which are unnatural and express the demonic and paranormal nature of their being. Although due to their corporeal nature I believe it probable that their bodies still metabolize (to an extent), but only in a twisted parody of the usual natural biological processes.

That being said, one must ask, what does it mean to be ‘undead’ - at least where vampires are concerned? Due to paranormal study it has been acertained by experts in the field of vampirology that a vampire is hardly a ‘reanimated corpse’ as the folklore states. This is how the Right Reverend Seán Manchester, president of the Vampire Research Society, put it:

“The best way to describe the afflicted body, because that is what you are talking about, in terms more easily understood and theologically correct, is that it was presumed dead when it was not and therefore could not be truly dead. Yet nor is it alive in the full sense and meaning of that word. The soul trapped in a twilight place is neither dead nor alive due in part to demonic interference and intervention, sometimes already in operation, sometimes summoned by outside emissaries. The bigger question is what led to the situation occurring where a person is believed dead when they are not (due to an outside agency), ie what led to them entering this undead condition in the first place? This is further complicated by the entity having the ability to materialise and dematerialise, masquerade as something it is not, eg an apparition of a walking dead person that is nevertheless strikingly alive in appearance, or metamorphose into mist. We are faced with a plethora of contradictions because we are dealing with the supernatural, not the material world.”

In his book The Vampire: His Kith and Kin , Montague Summers wrote that the vampire is neither alive nor dead but rather “living in death”. So how does a physical–albeit supernatural–body live in death? I suppose the true nature of undeath is something that we as humans cannot fully comprehend.

Although the vampire is said to have a very ghoulish appearance, being exceedingly gaunt with sallow skin and a horrid countenance, and it’s breath stinks of charnel. It is also extremely vital to keep in mind that a vampire cannot be “killed", it can only ritually exorcised or else completely destroyed. Indeed most methods of killing or neutralizing vertebrates have proven largely ineffectual against the undead.

Becoming a Vampire

In the original folklore whether or not someone became a vampire after their death was usually determined by the spiritual or moral state that person was in prior to expiry. It was less frequent that the victim of a vampire became a vampire as such was not always the case. Those considered most viable candidates for the vampire condition were as follows: suicides, people who dedicated their life to committing heinous atrocities, witches, satanists, heretics, and most surprisingly werewolves. Likewise it is widely held that a dhampir is always predisposed to becoming a full vampire after death. In his book The Vampire: His Kith and Kin Montague Summers writes:

“It was once generally supposed that all suicides might after death become vampires; and this was easily extended to those who met with any violent and sudden death.”

Seán Manchester also writes in The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook: a Concise Vampirological Guide:

“The cause of vampirism […] is a life of more than ordinary immorality […] The vampire is believed to be one who has delighted in blood and devoted himself during his life to the practice of diabolism…”

The misleading notion that vampirism is spread through a bite was likely inspired by rabies outbreaks which to confused and ignorant peasants might be mistaken for vampirism. Likewise, the Bubonic Plague doubtlessly fed into the vampire tradition. There are many other quote un-quote “real world” occurrences which could have influenced the way vampires are viewed, but they are by no means the origin or primary cause of such beliefs.

Cardio Vascular Function

A vampire has to be able to pump blood. How else could the blood spray everywhere when impaled with a stake? Reports of the heart still beating when removed are not uncommon. However the creature’s heartbeat is said to be exceedingly abnormal and inconsistent with unnaturally long spans of dysfunction. During the day when the corporeal shell is dormant it hardly beats at all.

Feeding

There is very little evidence to suggest that vampires metabolize blood in the same way that the hematophages of the natural world do. Rather the demonic entity uses the esoteric life essence in the blood to fuel it’s nightly ravages and to aid in preventing decomposition. In fact the creature seems to purge itself of used blood by expelling it through all of it’s orifices once after gorging itself, puffing up like a tick, therein the skin will appear ruddy or darkly swollen due to the sheer quantity of blood it has greedily quaffed down, as opposed to digesting it as one might expect.

Ghostly Qualities

The vampire is in more ways than one a paradox. In addition to being neither truly alive nor dead, it also seems to take on the qualities of an apparition. The corporeal shell is capable of feats no physical body can perform without supernatural assistance, such as materialization and dematerialization, levitating or hovering just above the ground, morphing into various shapes (ie. the guise of an animal), scaling vertical surfaces, squeezing through tiny spaces (leading to the belief that they had no bones), and passing through solid matter, though primarily windows and soil, as opposed to walls or floors.

Metamorphosis

The vampire is able to leave the earthly confines of it’s grave and might accomplish this through metamorphosis, that is, changing form (ie. into mist or fog). Salt, a substance used in Christian rituals for the blessing of holy water and much else besides, when attempting to present a barrier to demonic intrusion, can be applied around the afflicted area to deter this from happening, but other items ought to be included, eg holy water, white candles, silver crucifixes.

The grave of a vampire, to which it must periodically return at cockcrow, often has a number of identical finger width holes in the earth through which it is believed to escape without further disturbing the site.

The corporeal form, through its demonic agency, does have the supernatural ability to dematerialise and rematerialise outside the parameters of its tomb. This is extended to all manner of metamorphosis, as described in Seán Manchester’s book. So it can “assume other likenesses,” and retain more than just the spectral appearance of an apparition when it returns to the corporeal from something else, whatever that something else might be.

[Source: Metamorphosis]

Time Desynchronization

Seán Manchester postulates in his book The Highgate Vampire that the undead do not exist in time as we know it, and goes on to say that the concept of anti-time might explain why vampires do not cast shadows and why they offer no reflection. …

“Furthermore, it has been my own observation that these corporeal spectres manifest outside the limitations of earthly time, and that the absence of any reflection is proof positive of them being undead. The exorcised shell, no longer occupied by that unholy force from a nether region, will again reflect in mirrors, cast shadows and appear on film. But only after the dark and demonic force has been properly expelled."

— †Seán Manchester

(The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook)

Thus it is suggested that vampires have neither a shadow or reflection because they are out of sync with time. Seán also told me on Facebook ; “Moreover, I would posit that all truly supernatural phenomena is outside normal time. Demons, ergo vampires, dwell in anti-time.”

I find this intriguing because I have heard about people who claim to have encountered angels and said that they had no shadow.

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Weaknesses

Items considered by some as useful antidotes and weapons in the pursuit of vampires are no substitute for serious study and painstaking research, and the following list is by no means comprehensive.

Stake to the heart: piercing or removing the heart disrupts the vampire’s ability to leech off from the vitalizing energy abundant in blood, additionally disrupting the demon’s hold over the body and causing the delayed stages of decomposition to rapidly catch up. However this has not always been shown to work. There are some instances where the revenant was able to get back up and exact it’s dreadful revenge.

[The Highgate Vampire’s final moments.]

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Sunlight: There is next to nothing in the original folklore to suggest that sunlight has any particularly harmful effect against vampires. If sunlight did burn them then all other methods of destruction would cease to be necessary. The corporeal shell would burst into flames as soon as you open the coffin lid. This has never once happened.

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Bullets: While there are several references to bullets and silver bullets, shooting at vampires will not prove remotely effective. A silver bullet is the legendary method of killing werewolves. Making home-made bullets is dangerous, unless you know what you are doing. Hot metals can cause injury and attempting to melt silver may be hazardous.

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Decapitation: “The only certain method of destroying a Vampire appear to be either to consume him with fire, or to chop off his head with a grave-digger’s shovel, or drive a wooden stake through his heart,” according to Montague Summers. He does not say that another method of decapitation would not suffice and probably only mention’s a sexton’s spade in the assumption that the exorcism is taking place in a graveyard and that such an instrument would be something nearby which could be used. Almost confirming his anticipation of a cemetery environment, Summers advises: “Saturday is the day of the week on which the exorcism ought by right take place, because the spirit then rests in the tomb.”

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Fire: Cremation is usually best left to professional undertakers. However, it is the most effective way to purify a contaminated environment and/or corporeal shell inhabited by a demonic entity. Thus as long as nothing remains it will almost assuredly work, although it is advised to also crush the bones to dust and scatter them to the four winds.

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Crosses: the symbol of Christ who is the vampire’s nemesis (vampirism in of itself being a sordid parody of the blood and resurrection) is naturally abhorred by vampires. However only faith will imbue a cross with the essential divine connection that makes it so utterly effective at warding off the undead.

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Garlic: There is no harm in garlic. It is actually very good for you. It nevertheless has a long tradition for warding off evil spirits, including vampires. It was recognised as a powerful antidote by the Ancient Egyptians and also the Israelites.

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Saturdays: In the East the Sabbath, the biblical day of rest, lies on a Saturday, as opposed to Sunday as it is here in the U.S and also the U.K. It is also alledgedly the only night where the vampire’s nightly murder sprees are completely prohibited by God. The vampire must remain motionless in it’s grave for the entire 24 hour period.

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Invitation: A vampire cannot cross the threshold of any living establishment without being invited first, although the invitation does not always have to be concientious or even vocal, if a person regularly allows negative and demonic influences into their home, however unwittingly, then this may well count as an invitation. The question as to the reason behind this can perhaps be found in Catholic tradition: It is believed that a guardian angel is assigned to each house, which they will fiercely protect from supernatural/spiritual threats unless the goodwill or godliness of any of it’s occupants becomes compromised. Considering that vampires are purely demonic, it would go without saying that such a being wouldn’t dare enter such an establishment for fear of being incinerated by the angel’s divine wrath.

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Running Water: Vampires seem to have extreme difficulty crossing running water, save at the ebb of tide. The reason for this is unknown (as for many of the other weaknesses, I believe that God would not allow such a fiend to exist without placing extreme limitations).

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Restricted Wandering: The Vampire cannot stray too far beyond it’s grave for it is forced to return at daybreak to lie down in deathlike slumber, unless relocated by human followers (usually necromantic cults of Devil worshipers).

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Knives: Ineffective against vampires or any other supernatural manifestations. Montague Summers nevertheless reveals that in Dalmatia and Albania the wooden stake is sometimes, probably unwisely, sustituted with a dagger blessed by a priest. Any blow made by an earthly weapon, save decapitation, will most likely prove ineffectual.
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Mirrors: Not much folkloric support for the use of mirrors exists. They are nonetheless effective as a repellent for reasons explained on page 28 of The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook .

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Saint John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum): Christians began placing Saint John’s wort, perhaps the most powerful herb for this purpose, in doorways to repel demons. Christian priests have also used this herb to cast away evil.

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Holy water: of course, is a sanctified item in the struggle against the Devil. The use of holy water in the earliest days of the Christian Era is attested by documents. In the earliest Christian times water was used for expiatory and purificatory purposes. Contact is said to cause a vampire’s skin to boil.

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The Host: By far the most powerful repellent against evil, not least vampires, is the Host, the Body of God.

[Source: Vampire Antidotes and Repellents]

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The Croglin Grange Vampire of Cumberland

written by Les HewittApril 2, 2018

Almost every culture has old stories about creatures or beings that return from beyond the grave to feast on the living during the hours of darkness. In the west, the vampire has taken on a whole new persona over the last century or so. Typically, the roots of pop culture’s most popular monster are traced back to Eastern European folklore, although similar creatures go back thousands of years in various civilizations. One early incarnation of the modern blood-sucking creature emerged in the late 1800s in England when Augustus Hare gave an account of the Croglin Grange vampire in his autobiographical novel, Story of My Life .

croglin grange vampire

Nosferatu, 1922. The modern version of the bloodsucking vampire became popular beginning in the 1800s.

Penny Dreadful Stories and Legends

The Croglin vampire was said to have been at least a couple of centuries old. Perhaps this story is merely a story, however, Hare portrayed it as one based on truth. A popular form of literature or story-telling at the time was the type one might find in the penny dreadful pamphlets. These were works of fiction that were usually of a sensational subject and gothic in style. The following story about the Croglin Grange vampire might be one example of that style or even the Victorian equivalent of an urban legend. But many people believe that there may have been some truth to this story.

The Croglin Grange Vampire Story

Augustus Hare claimed that Captain Fisher had told him a “really extraordinary story connected with his own family.” The Fisher family had had a longstanding presence of several hundred years in Cumberland at a place they called Croglin Grange. The family eventually grew out their house and they opted to relocate to the south, but instead of leaving their property vacant, they chose to lease it out to paying tenants.

See also: The History of Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Real Inspiration

croglin grange vampire

Croglin Grange (later, Croglin Low Hall) illustration by Charles G. Harper, 1907.

The Cranswell siblings – two brothers and a sister – took up residency in the single-story farmhouse. Winter came and went without incident. The following summer was a muggy one. On one oppressively hot night, the tenants took the opportunity to watch the Moon before finally turning in. The sister Amelia lay on her bed on top of the covers and closed the bedroom window. The shutters remained unlocked though.

Lights in the Churchyard

Unable to settle down to sleep in the heat, Amelia gazed out of her window. A church, complete with its own graveyard, stood beyond a line of trees. Her eyes caught a glimpse of something concealed in the twilight. Two flickering lights seemed to be moving among the copse of trees visible from her window. She was intrigued at first, but the longer she watched, the more nervous she began to feel. In a moment, both lights started to emerge from the treeline and into view. It looked as though the lights were a small part of a larger form – a humanoid form.

As the figure approached the farmhouse, the startled and very frightened young lady suddenly found the compulsion to act. Amelia raced to the door, arriving just in time to unlock it. It seems as though this was not a moment too soon. As she fumbled at the lock, Amelia could hear a scratching sound coming from her bedroom window. Despite her growing terror, she dared one look backward. Standing outside the window, almost filling it, was a hideous face that had fierce glaring eyes. Bony fingers made efforts to open the window for a couple of seconds before stopping.

An Unwelcome Guest

A new noise made Amelia freeze with even more terror. Whatever was outside was now picking at the lead seals of the window. No sooner had this sound rendered her immobile, then another made her blood run cold. The window fell out and one arm levered in to open the window from the inside! Unable to move or even raise an alarm, the thing moved quickly and was beside her in moments, teeth nestling into her exposed neck. Now she felt able to scream. Her shrieking alerted both of her brothers who came to investigate. After breaking down her door, the invader fled back the way it had come. Amelia’s brother took up the pursuit, but he was no match for the giant strides of the creature. It disappeared beyond the wall of the churchyard.

Amelia was bleeding quite heavily but passed off her attacker as an escaped convict from a lunatic asylum. Given her ordeal and the fact that she regarded herself as a girl with very little superstition, it was perhaps an understandable conclusion. Amelia did recover from her wounds but needed to recuperate. The three of them went to Switzerland so that she could completely recover. While there, Amelia yearned to return to Croglin. Despite the events that took place, she and her brothers still liked the area and they were popular among the other residents. The decision was Amelia’s and she decided to return, insisting that lunatics do not escape every day of the week.

The Crypt in the Churchyard

When they returned home, they spent another placid winter in Croglin. It was during the following March that Amelia began to hear the unmistakable scratching at her window once more. This time, she acted promptly and decisively, screaming for help before the same creature from before managed to gain access to her room. Both of her brothers responded quickly, only this time they were armed. Her screams also forced the creature to flee, and it was heading back the way it had come when one brother took aim and fired. Despite being hit in its leg, the monster still made an escape. Only this time, the brothers were able to track it. All three discovered that the monster had taken refuge inside a crypt that belonged to a family that once existed in the area.

The brothers decided against entering the crypt at the time, preferring to gather a posse and investigate at daybreak. When they opened the crypt the following morning, they discovered several coffins. Only one of them was intact, but the lid was ajar and laying loose on top of it. Inside was a corpse with a fresh bullet wound in one leg. The body was removed, brought outside the crypt, and ignited. This was the tale of the Croglin Vampire.

Investigation of the Story

Some folks believe it never happened at all. In 1924, Charles Harper decided to investigate the legend. Not overly convinced about the validity of the account, he traveled to Cumberland and began to research the tale personally. One of the discoveries he made was that there was no such place as Croglin Hall. He did find evidence of Croglin Low Hall and High Hall. According to Harper in his 1907 book Haunted Houses, “Croglin Hall is probably the house indicated, but it is at least a mile distant from the church, which has been rebuilt. The churchyard contains no tomb which by any stretch of the imagination could be identified with that described by Mr. Hare.”

croglin grange vampire church

St. John’s church of Croglin built in 1878 near the site of an old church of Norman times. CC 2.0 Andrew Smith.

The story was challenged by another researcher, F. Clive Ross, in the 1930s. Ross took the time to interview the locals and came to the conclusion that Croglin Low Hall was actually Croglin Grange. The Grange did have a chapel on the grounds, which was built on the foundations of an earlier church. One of the locals that Ross interviewed was a lady called Mrs. Parkin. This resident of Ainstable claimed to have personally known a descendant of the Fisher family. Mrs. Parkin indicated that he was born in the 1860s and knew the vampire story from his grandparents. The lady also revealed that the deed to the property stated that until 1720, Croglin Low Hall was Croglin Grange.

Evidence of a Grange?

Journalist Lionel Fanthorpe conducted a more recent investigation into the authenticity of the Croglin Vampire. His results suggest that some events could be genuine. Fanthorpe believes that someone demolished a grange during the lifetime of Oliver Cromwell. If the story is true, then it is much more likely to have taken place sometime in the century before the deed was altered.

You may also like:
Richard Chase – The Vampire of Sacramento
The History of Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Real Inspiration

Additional references:
Facts Legend
Decoded Past
The 13th Floor
Cool Interesting Stuff
The Vampire Project

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De-Romanticizing the Vampire by Anthony Hogg.

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Like this golden thread

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They flooded me with nightmares that are so insidiously messed up that I can’t even post the details. They scratched me, threw stuff around the room, and made cackling sounds so evil and insanely demented even Jeff The Killer would be terrified. They are not just parasitic, they have very very murderous intentions but are unable to carry them out as they would love to so they resort to everything short of that.

And you know who my saving grace was? This man right here:

Because he introduced me to him:

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I certainly will, though I highly doubt that it is anything different than what I learned when I used to practice Wicca. Spiritus, Aura, Aqua, Humus, Caminus are the proper Latin terms for the elements. I think darkness and light are both represented by Spirit (Wicca has kind of a ying yang philosophy).

Thing is, in many cases spells wear off eventually. The Holy Spirit never wears off, it is eternal. When a truly righteous and godly person leaves a room you can feel the power thrumming in the air long after they are gone. When Cecil Pearson gives a sermon his voice exudes real power when he really gets into it. It is unlike that of any witch I ever spoke with, and it’s over the internet:

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I would if it wasnt just nonsense.

These are the good describtions of vampires, yours? Not really.

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They’re on point for the most part, if a bit rudimentary. However the common assumption that fokloric vampires don’t exist and are just myths can be put into question, I believe.

The occult is something that is hidden, requiring one to look much deeper than conventional sources allow in order to shed light on the darkened truth. I believe that this fits the topic of vampires like a glove.

The majority of mainstream Society regards magick with the same level of scepticism as they do vampires, so you have to wonder.

Lol! That’s called xtian guilt. You did it to yourself.
Parasites love that stuff, it’s yummy and attracts them.

The arrogance that you think humans matter enough that ‘evil’ - ie, what you don’t like - is even a thing.

It’s not personal, the universe just is what it is. The god you chose to give your power away to isn’t ‘good’ either, it’s just trying to survive like all of us.

This ^

Also, btw preaching is against the rules. Be careful with the dogma, it doesn’t float here.

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This happens with a handful of LHP people, they leave Christianity and think Yahweh is attacking them for it. It’s just them doing it to themselves just as this is you doing the same.

They don’t care about your religious faith just as Yahweh doesn’t care about LHP people choosing to no longer be Christian. Those people attract a parasite of their own collective creation.

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And now you have made a duplicate account, whats wrong did you forgot its password or something? I am gonna send you to our moderator to fix that problem. :smiley:

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Nah. It’s cool. My comment limit for the day was expended and I needed to address a few questions. This account is temporary.

@GospelOfTruth you’ve obviously gone to a lot of trouble here to share information with solid foundations (as opposed to the fiction-led larping about vampiures which frequently haunts this forum) so I am showing your work respect by restoring this with the majority of argument about the nature of demons removed - and I have moved it to the White Magick/RHP section which is reserved for posts by people whose magick and spiritual work is conducted with the self-chosen constraints of a religious path.

Please refrain from simply open-ended preaching, of the “demons are evil, anything except Christianity is a sinful path to hell” variety - thisd forum is NOT open to this, it’s also against the rules.

We have Christian and religious members who are held in high regard here because they are able to live their truth and impress us by their deeds, NOT their claims, I hope your commitment to actually making sensible posts with a variety of research sources places you in this category. :+1:

You now have no post limits on your @GospelOfTruth account so I have closed the other two accounts you opened: I appreciate it was not your intention to deceive or shill for your own accounts, however from now onwards please remain with @GospelOfTruth and do not open any other duplicate accounts.

If you at any point need a change of ID or anything, contact me by PM.

  • I am showing good faith here in restoring your posts and removing limits on your account, please show that in exchange by honouring our forum rule against preaching, which members informed you of and which is non-negotiable.

Sharing information, especially of the well-sourced and wide-ranging nature you have provided, is fine; embarking upon open-ended rants against demons, magick, etc., is NOT permitted. I hope you’ll be okay with this and that we’re all good from here onwards? :sunny:

Finally, an important request: please do familiarise yourself with our forum-specific rules, which expand upon the default T&C’s which come bundled with this forum’s software, and which cannot, obviously, address every specific type of situation encountered on a forum which primarily discusses magick:

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Thank you. Your esteem is appreciated. I’ll lay down on the so called “preaching”.

what did i just walk into?

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