The First Vampires - How Early Vampirism Impacted Theology, Philosophy & the Occult
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2025
- What are the origins of the Vampire? Born in Eastern European folklore and transformed by Enlightenment, the Vampire is truly the first modern monster. We all know Dracula but what do the earliest Vampire accounts reveal to us about the origins of this undead, blood-sucking creature? Let's turn back to those accounts and see just how different the first recorded Vampires were from the dapper fanged aristocrats of Stoker and Rice. Though, not only did the Vampire come to haunt the imagination but the Undead also proved a formidable threat to both Enlightenment Philosophy, early Occult Philosophy and Catholic Theology all of which had some say during the "Vampire Craze" of 1720-1750.
Check out Filip's video - • The Creepy History of ...
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Recommending Readings:
Groom - The Vampire: A New History - 978-0300254839
Barber - Vampires, Burial, and Death - 978-0300164817
Sturm & Völker - Von denen Vampiren - 978-3518387818
Calmet - Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires - 978-1533145680
Vermeir - Vampires as Creatures of the Imagination
Rohr - Dissertatio Historico-Philosophica De Masticatione Mortuorum - www.google.com...
Ranft - Diss. prior hist. crit. de masticatione mortuorum in tumulis
archive.org/de...
Davanzati - Dissertazione sopra i vampiri - archive.org/de...
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is it Anne Rice to blame for making Vampires into sexy/rapish things? i always understood the Bram Stoker stuff as "murder mystery" in nature, but by the time of Twilight its pretty cleary sexied up 👀
Hey would you be interested in analysing Santa Muerte worship and its relationship with catholocism and her growing relation with the occult
Have you listened to The Histocrat's Mythillogical podcast episode on Vampires? It's really quite good, but you definitely managed to unearth some references and sources even they had passed over and brought them to a state of undeath for us! Wonderful stuff, between their old episode and you and Filip's episodes there is a bloody delicious feast of vampiric education!
Say #Dr.Justin_Sledge I have a question for ya, but wanted to also ask how your rare book treasure hunting is going as well, just as a curious book hunter as well! I wanted to pick your brain as am confused I think is #Augustus aka #AGRIPPA AS WELL? Thank you and have a Blessed Day my Fren! #biskit911
You DO understand the difference between Hollywood and occult legend vampires, right?
This was a fascinating video, especially to me because I'm from the Western Balkans. It's one of our few points of pride, the fact that the word "vampire" is the only word that comes from our language that is used world-wide (that language being what we called Serbo-Croatian in Yugoslavia, but now has no common name as 4 countries all claim that their dialect is a different language). The actual word, "vampir" doesn't really have a clear etymology here, but is definitely related to the old word for "bat". The word for bat used to be "netopir" ("pir" coming from the verb "piriti", which essentially means "to glide", and "neto" possibly coming from the Proto-Slavic word for "night", so a night-glider), but after the Ottoman period was replaced with "šišmiš" ("šiš" being the Turkish word for the attic, and "miš" meaning mouse, because after all what is a bat if not a rat from above). Variations of the word "netopir" are still used to mean "bat" in Slovene and Czech languages today.
Another etymology goes back to an Albanian dialect (which itself is a remnant of the old Ilyrian languages, tying it back to the Western Balkans), and their word "dhampir". "Dham" means "tooth" and "pir" means "drink", so it would be a creature that drinks through its teeth.
Another interesting tidbit comes from a Russian variant of the Vampire myth, known as the Wurdalak. It is a typical vampire, just with the caveat that a wurdalak must convert his entire family after his own conversion. But the name comes from "vukodlak", which is the Western Balkan word for "werewolf" ("vuk" means "wolf", and "dlaka" means "hair" or "fur"). The early myths of vampire and werewolves have a common origin. Even in Stoker's "Dracula", the count can transform into a wolf, a bat, and mist.
One thing that I though was interesting about this video is that there was no mention of Sava Sevanović, who in these parts is usually referred to as "the first vampire". His story is a little older than those of Petar Blagojević and Pavle Arnaut (referred to as Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole in this video), but more recent than Jure Grando's. Not much is really known about Sava, it's mostly his name that people know now, but I would recommend to everyone to check out the movie "Leptirica". It is the first horror film made in Yugoslavia, adapted from the book "After Ninety Years" by Milovan Glišić. It's a story about Sava's attacks long after his death, and the vampire's form is more reminiscent of a werewolf (tying back into that piece of trivia). It's not a great film by any means, but it is the only real vampire film made in the region from where the myth supposedly originates, and is thus an important piece of vampiric history.
Thank you!!!
thank you for sharing such interesting information! much love :}
Such interesting bits of history on this channel and in the comments.
po čajkanoviću 'vampir' je etimološki vezan za riječ 'leptir'. međutim ako se pogledaju 'netopir' i 'leptir' čini se i da su ta dva pojma povezana, u vukovom riječniku 'metopir' je leptir
Early History channel documentary, found on VHS.. reference, forgive me please,, Stree-Go... how all or most, folklore birthed from this, cursed afterlife.. this history has always fascinated me.. thank you.. for any and all help with understanding.. cheers from Southern California
The fact that this folklore had existed for centuries and, as you said, possibly a millennium before the first written records is so often overlooked but very meaningful.
Meaningful in what way?
@@rainbowkrampus Because it shows that the origins are almost certainly even more complicated than what we know and lots was probably lost and changed before the records even started. That "lots" could put the way we understand the whole concept into a different light and completely change the way we understand it.
@@sabrinagranger5468we already know a few stories in various mythologies are millennia old. Some are theorized even older. Comparative mythology is wild for this. Hell, one is potentially 20, maybe 30 thousand years old and the reason for that estimate is because it’s a story you see in both indo European and Native American mythos, meaning it potentially goes back to their last common ancestor
I feel like things that have always existed are kind of just real in some way. They are recurring, which means they have a spirit atleast.
@@Fuk99999or maybe, JUST MAYBE, theres a little truth to the stories being told. Too often do we discount things of this nature as myth and legend, when plenty of people knew these beings to exist as plainly as you and i. Whos to say theres a common ancestor rather than a common experience?
I had never thought of the theological issue of raising the undead as a violation of the Divine power of resurrection. Thank you for your work, I always find it very fascinating and educational.
If you are here after watching Robert Egger's Nosferatu, you are in the right place. This is an excellent companion piece t o Nosferatu.
@@Torque2100 my wife and I went to go see it earlier today. We also copped the popcorn coffin tin as well. 1000% worth every penny. Anyways. Easily the best movie Ive seen in years. The atmosphere is perfect. The slow burn pace of the film is excellently executed. The story was told very well in my opinion. So I'm excited to watch this video for sure. Salute homie.
I'm rewatching this video after seeing Eggers' Nosferatu to understand preceding concepts of vampirism that might have gone into the production. The film, and its 1922 homage, are set in the 1830s, nearly a century after the vampire craze wherein the literature featured in this video was written. In a Germany that's accepted the Enlightenment and has begun to understand Germ Theory, Vampirism is nearly forgotten and a late coming Paracelsian (played by Willem Dafoe) is necessary to combat it. Because the film is rather plot driven, we don't get much specific literature, aside from references to Agrippa. However, we do get the impression of expansive texts on vampirism, like Calmet's, that include various forms of, and methods of handling, the affliction.
Eggers draws on vampires as creatures of the imagination (Nosferatu is comingled with Ellen's melancholy and they connect through her loneliness), the premature resurrection of a corpse that has been magically kept in a state of partial death, the remote appearance of vampires, and the connection of the vampire to pestilence and plague. However, there are also elements of early spiritualism, that are discussed in the video on Radical Spiritualism, which give the role of Ellen and the process of vampirism further shape. Ellen is a medium, who is induced and self-induced into trances, and she is diagnosed as having "too much blood," which is first dealt with by bleeding her. Swendenborg's idea of the souls of the dead progressing in knowledge and power gives a vehicle for a vastly more powerful vampire like Orlok to exist, and be sought out by Knock for boons as his thrall. The ideas of Mesmer also seem to factor in, as the tidal current of life is simultaneously a conduit for Ellen to reach Orlok and for Orlok to extend his influence into a plague. This fits well with Balkan folklore describing vampires appearing at distant locations through incorporeal means to feed. Though the film has to achieve its conclusion, more than saunter on the details, a good amount of vampire literature and setting contemporary esoterica contributes to the effect on screen.
Great episode Dr. Sledge. A note on Serbian and Croatian vampires is that they are deeply rooted in concepts of the living soul (dusha) and the corporeal soul (duh), and are connected to disease and community unrest. The umpyre (one who flies) is formless and seeks form. It is the remanent of the Duh of a corpse that was improperly buried or decomposed (especially on battlefields) that roams the land as a mist looking to regain form, often inhabiting and feeding off of rats, fleas, ticks, flies, and mosquitos. If it finds a cemetery, it will infect a fresh corpse and feed off of it, but also use it to project into the village, to hunt for human and animal hosts. If there is domestic unrest or violence, the umpyre will zero in on that home and exasperate the situation, opening up the family and village as a whole to psychological stress and sickness, which makes it easier for it to feed. The umpyre is the plague bringer and signals worse things to come. The Arnold Paole incidents occurred at a time of great social stress due to a TB epidemic that was raging and the occupation of the Astro-Hungarians.
Given the quality of your comment, I’m certain autocorrect gave us “Astro-Hungarians” here.
I have to stifle a giggle upon spacefaring Hungarian bloodsuckers being presented for our consideration. 😂😂😂
This is really fascinating context. Thank you for sharing it. Instead of the west Balkan vampires being phenomena radiating from a single present corpse, the one identified as the first vampire is just the first infected by the umpyre, which is why Arnold and others gain the vampirism as an infection in life. Local natural philosophy is also describing a situation not much differently than the science would. The carriers of plague, flies, rats, ad humans, are easily identified; however the bacterium causing plague is microscopic and its appearance is convergent with periods of unrest. Umpyres seem to connect the state of the individual to the family and society and psychological maladies to corporeal and interpersonal ones.
the livestock becoming infected with vampirism after vampires feed on them and then going on to infect the humans that eat the livestock is SUCH a cool idea idk why ive never seen this in vampire fiction before, esp since vampires feeding on livestock is already a thing in some vampire fiction.
im guessing this idea came from people becoming sick and dying after eating meat from livestock that was infected with anthrax or some other disease (especially since the dead animals that died from anthrax are often found with blood in their mouth)
Yes like 90s tv series Buffy the vampire slayer spike and angel both fed on rats whilst in hiding from the hunters.. or other vampiric sects.. oh lord shut me up.. have you seen the vampiric communities online even clubs now.. js..
I was dozing off as I listened, at at 29:08 when you said "Andy are you watching this" I got a terrible shock and sat bolt upright, wide awake. As in my semi sleeping state I thought you where talking to me.....
😅
Lol
"Everybody had a vampire in this fight" makes me imagine a Pokemon-like tournament where every ideological current sends it's vampire to fight for supremacy
@@Shin_Lonathat would be funny
I learned a lot about vampires in a class I took all about the “monstrous other” and it was really fascinating to see the development of their lore over time. Thank you again Dr. Sledge!
Thanks, Dr. Sledge! This one was a lot of fun!
Fantastic work, Dr Sledge. Thank you for continuing such divine scholarship to the masses, even despite the tragic recents events in your Detroit religious community. I hope for justice to arrive soon.
excellent comment and i can only agree
Yes. Truly terrible. I hope you are all safe, and have no more of that. 🙏♥️✌️
Divine scholarship for the masses. A only LP vinyl, double record rock symphony. What a great title.
I just wanted to say thank you for the wealth of wisdom you have dispensed here over the years, its like discovering an unburnt part of the library of alexandria
I want my comment to reach to the creator so i type here,
There is an ottoman traveller named Evliya Celebi, in his Seyehatname he accounts he met with an ottoman government hired team of vampire hunters called Obur Avcıları(glutton hunters) and with them he saw 2 tribes of abkhaz and circassian vampires/witches battling each other, the battle taking place in air, this vampires flying on top of household objects and tree branches. The mentioned text is in 7th book.
the respect and camaraderie in this sphere of youtube is so refreshing. the way you linked filip’s video before your own patreon in the description genuinely made me tear up
The reality of prematurely buried people waking up and having no choice but to eat their own limbs to survive is more horrifying than any monster I can think of
Wouldn't they suffocate and die of thirst long before it came to that?
There is no such thing as having to eat your own limbs to survive. Unless your limb has already been removed for some other reason, eating your own limb is vastly less efficient than your body is at managing starvation itself by strategically recycling/consuming fat, then muscle slowly, and where it can be missed most. Not to mention the trauma removing body parts will inflict on the body and the energy spent dealing with that and the resulting wound. You will only die faster.
That's not to say starvation is not horrible but it will not come to hacking off your own limbs to eat.
Now to the reports of people eating parts of themselves in graves. I suppose it doesn't actually have to work for you to think you should try this...and I imagine you could go quite mad in such a situation. But I agree that you would suffocate long before it came to any of this. The very highest estimates for how long you could breathe in even a large coffin are on the order of 36 hours and some say it'd be more like one hour or less. If you are dying from starvation within less than 2/3 days(including before burial i guess) you were already deep into starvation.
@@ZTanMURReneRs you mentioned it towards the end but I was going to say: it's likely they would've lost their mind. Sure, 36 hours doesn't seem like a sufficient timeline for madness but imagine you're a devout christian peasant with a firm belief in heaven, hell, demons etc. Then imagine you wake up in complete darkness with no sound and barely able to move, completely alone. That is a hell in and of itself but from the perspective of the buried it must seem like they are literally in a hell that's even worse than they had imagined or been taught about. After a certain point they wouldn't have much reason to believe they're actually alive. Isolation in that kind of darkness and silence, the fear and dread combined with their own beliefs, and a lack of oxygen: I think delirium and insanity would set in rather quickly.
@@ZTanMURReneRs "You will only die faster." So, given the options...
Haha. theres a reason we don't find shipwrecked survivors limbless from having consumed themselves
Right as I’m researching about “vampires” and you so happen to upload at that exact time. Coincidental yet Bizarre. Thankyou again! And I love the sarcasm and humor when you discuss these topics 😂
Dr Sledge, I wanted to tell you that your channel is my favorite out of 100 or so that I have subscribed.
I am from the Carpathians (northern parts, not Romania), I just saw Nosferatu so I returned to this video and searched the web for some more reading (esp. related to these parts) found this interesting piece of information (translated using GPT) about a relatively recent event in my country (the eastern, more 'backward' parts, but still, surprising that this happened so late).
"Our last officially documented vampire hunt took place in the 1980s in a small village in Zemplín. At the explicit request of the village's residents, its name is not disclosed, even in the study conducted there by ethnologist Katarína Nádaská. It is said that the vampire was a surly landlord who, during his life, "drank blood" - as the locals would say. He did not repent, even when he was dying, and even managed to curse everyone he knew in his final moments. However, the village did not get a chance to relax for long, because shortly after his death, inexplicable events began happening. His descendants somehow started to deteriorate, and a few of them even died, which alarmed his sons. They acted decisively and cut off their deceased father's head. They covered the grave with poppy seeds and hung a garlic wreath on the gate. They hoped that this would tame the restless vampire and force him to leave the world for good."
Dr Sledge, thank you so much for your work. It’s inspirational for someone like myself who wants to pursue a PhD in the Humanities. I love Academia.
100%
Very good illustration pictures. I'd really appreciate a list of referenced images in every episode.
You always dig deep. Much like a vampire hunter…. Great video as always 🧛♀️🧛🧛♂️
Great work, Dr Sledge 👏 thanks for all you do!
Thanks!
Thanks
Warning: it gets pretty spooky for a few seconds @7:20 I wasn't ready for a spookening of that magnitude.
-- Also, thank you for the continued great content 🖤
I appreciate your respect for all the subjects you discuss on your channel.
I have learned so much from your channel, and I've been studying the occult for 25+ years.
I've purchased several books you have suggested.
Filip @Let's Talk Religion really does have an amazing channel, so cool to see you give him a shout out. You are my 2 favorite youtubers who cover religious/spiritual topics from an academic perspective.
Thank you for being so rad and doing such rad stuff. 🤘🔥👍
Greetings from the original land of the vampires, Serbia. Great video :)
In last few years,archeologists found vampire burials in Poland.
A favorite topic for all your video does every bit of justice to the topic in perfect acumen. One of the best shows yet overall. Hands down.
Another fascinating discussion, thank you, Justin.
Am glad that you and Filip give each other shout outs. I very much enjoy both of your channels. ❤
Huge vampire fan myself, so seeing you do a video on them is a dream come true
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. (Copy-Pasted from my comment to an associated podcast).
Hey Doc....I just purchased one of your long sleeved Sigilum Dei Aemeth shirts (I hope it's good cotton) and a couple of stickers for my chopper.. I don't usually put stickers on her..however... I'll be showing these off... I just wanted to say how much I love your channel and have been watching for a long time.. I apologise for not being able to support your work more.. you do deserve it that for sure..but ..you know..moneys tight for dummies like me.. Your work certainly expands my knowledge and..well....cheers ... I love your work....alot.
Many thanks!
Great episode. I really respect you and your work.
Thank you so much for this video Dr Sledge. I have watched the entire original "Dark Shadows" through 3 ,times. Your video tied up several loose ends concerning this "affliction"
I’m a firm believer that folk of the vampires was born in Maya regions. The half man half bat Camazotz was talked about in Spanish Catholic circles in the 1500s. The camazotz play a critical role in the mythology of the Popol Vuh as the Xibalba brothers defeat them. They are camazotz statues all over Mexico and Guatemala. There are underground temples where they were worshipped. There are even days in the maya calendar attributed to them. Thanks for the episode. Cheers. ❤
the more i learn about things like "Spanish Catholicism circles in the 1500s" the more i learn how deep the crazy-esoteric-occult stuff is. its not at all the concise and pure "conservative Catholicism" that it is very easy to assume it is. things are just so much more complicated
@@beepboop204When you forcibly convert people as occurred at the time of the spanish inquisition, prior to which Spain was trireligious (Roman catholics, Jews and Muslim) as well as other african and celtic beliefs that persisted you are going to have other substratum of belief. Spain was a major trading area at that time with traders coming from all regions of the mediterranean and north and west Africa. In Mexico there was a substratum of friday night jews, people who celebrated shabbath and then went to the church.
I severely question how those beliefs could have spread to the whole of the rest of the world (as even Russia has their vampires) in the very brief period you mention. I think you're confusing today's spread of information with what would have happened in the 1600s. Also, all the European, Greek and Russian traditions (not counting the Chinese and other Oriental peoples) would not have the deep hold they have in their cultures in a mere 300 years.
@@alexandresobreiramartins9461 I see your point. Still the first mention of half man half bat creatures was with the Maya. Sahagun speaks about the cult of the bat creatures. And the Spanish Catholics loved weird messed up stories like we do today. Also the Catholics were always traveling in missionary missions and transferring. My uncle is a priest and he travels everywhere. This the way of Catholic friars and priests. The Spanish or new Spain stories would have easily traveled all over the world very rapidly.
Vampires aren't bats or much associated with them until Universal Studios started doing crossovers and needed the Wolfman and Dracula to be harder to confuse. Blood drinking owls and nightjars are a feature of Roman literature long predating European-Mayan interactions. But I guess youtube comment sections need JoJo references. @@MAGIAECORPUS
I am a new subscriber, and I immediately liked this video when you said "God forbid... the Twilight series" 😂 but I watched the whole video and loved it, so if I could like it twice I would!❤
Another excellent episode! :)
I share your allergy for the sparkly vampires...when so many people have heard that I studied werewolves academically and wrote my dissertation and subsequent book largely on them, the immediate reaction has often been, "Oh, I bet you love the Twilight books, then," and not asked sarcastically. I have purposefully taken to replying with "Sorry, I don't do sparkly werewolves," and the inevitable response is always "The werewolves don't sparkle!" and it amazes me just how consistent that reaction is.
My parents were married before my elder brother's birth...but that doesn't mean I'm not more than a bit of a bastard.
I think the Twilight series captured the imagination of Gen Y2K for the same reason Bram Stoker's version of vampire as a sophisticated, foreign, noble Count captured 17th century audiences.
@@juniorjames7076 While I'm certain your basic premise is sound (i.e. that the popular vampires of an era appeal to certain cultural trends, preferences, interests, etc.), I have to question what needs, interests, or cultural trends necessitate a vampire who is centuries old going to high school and stalking young women fulfills...?!?
@phillipbernhardt-house6907 Hey, Bram Stokers' Dracula was over several centuries years old, and his victims were basically teens (Mina Harker, 18? Lucy, 19!). Vampire lore, whether 18th century or 21st Century is about SEX. A foreign/alien presence seducing (our) local,(virgin) women. It's the same story, and we are the same audience.
I may look up your book- I assume it’s written under the same as your TH-cam handle?
@@sarahenson9659 Yes...but it's ridiculously expensive--as in, even Brill might blush at these prices. There's a backdoor way to get the PDF for free, though...I don't have the link handy, but if you'd like it, let me know.
Fascinating, as always!
Wow this was tons of fun to listen to. Wish I could spend my life researching socio-historical/religious/philosophical topics like this.
I was waiting for you to upload. Great work Dr. Sledge.
One of my professors before I graduated specialized in the Witch Hunts... I might send her a message about what you said re: the sociological link between vampires and witches. Interesting!
Absolutely charming episode! I always love taking a break from your channel and coming back full force, tis bliss and bestest. :)
What a great spooky topic! I definitely enjoyed this!
There's that. :-) I reread Dracula in my forties and was amazed at the new technology Van Helsing utilitizes. It was a totally different read.
My college teacher put me onto your channel. Thanks Dr. Coleman!
There's definitely some overlap between this and alchemy.
The 4 stages of alchemy and undeath.
The aspect of gold and silver.
The green/red lion devouring the Sun.
The associations of immortality and the Philosopher's Stone. (and the myth of the immortal alchemist-also the Holy Grail associated with immortality through drinking and gold)
Maybe these aspects of vampiric folklore originate from these Paracelsians?
Or maybe they just took interest because it already existed.
Oh my gosh, can't wait to finish work so I can watch this!
Discovery Channel series on cryptids: this is how you investigate and present a topic without losing credibility on your whole research and documentary history. My respect for this man grows with each presentation I attend ❤
It seems like the vampirism was “the thing” in 18th c. like (on the example) the alien abduction is today: people have some weird experiences (a lot of people!) but they don’t fit into accepted form of logic/paradigm… nevertheles there’re people who don’t discredit such events as lunacy or something jet they write papers on it.
Very informative. Thank you.
That was a great video! I would love to watch a similar video on Early Modern werewolves. You've covered related topics like the witch heresy beliefs so well!
Just finished the live feed from let's talk religion, two outstanding channels
Tysm Doctor I'm so enthralled you made this episode
'Creepy little weird way' is an excellent description of how Montague Summers wrote about things.
I'm writing and running a World of Darkness campaign later this year, and given Esoterica has been one of my greatest sources of inspiration, I'm making Justin into an NPC in the setting. Thank you for the wonderful videos and the immense wealth of well woven information within. May your work receive its well deserved recognition and support!
What does NPC me do? Please don't say run a YT channel ;)
@@TheEsotericaChannel Can't deny, was tempted! But the game is set in 2005. Much as I'd love to reimagine what your channel would've been like back then, YT's original 360p would be SLANDER.
I gave him a slightly humbler role, he daylights as a radio host for the Seattle Beat, and moonlights as an independent publisher who anonymously writes articles about occult and religious topics within the universe. If my players catch on to it and tune in regularly, they'll find there's premonitions and clues hidden in his works and commentary. He'll be awesome, I owe you that much!
@@TheEsotericaChannelI think you'd be the eccentric owner of a book store that would have a "special" section for Occult Lore. And you'd be an unexpected badass with an old timey weapon like a pitchfork or a glaive (not the Krull variety 😂).
Carl Theodor Dreyer's movie Vampyr is one of the few that showcase the Vampire figure in its earlier historical incarnation, back when it still wasn't entirely separate from the figure of the Witch. While that movie's been analyzed cinematographically for closed to a century by now, it might be interesting to analyze it from a purely esoteric point of view.
It's such an amazing film. That and Häxan are my favorite pre-code films. (Guess I can't call Vampyr silent) followed closely by Un chien andalou & L'âge d'or.
@clavicleofcernunnos Häxan was really interesting.
Check out The Phantom Carriage!
I really appreciate you helping others channels. I will check it out. It will be tough to beat your channel.
Another fantastic video and one that covers a topic that I'm very fond of. On a separate note, I have to ask you, Dr. Sledge. When will the third installment of your Lilith series come out? That's something I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing and I hope you plan on still making it.
Excellent videos recently Justin!
Awesome as usual... a fascinating topic.
I find it amusing that there was confusion as to how the wandering, but spectral dead could get the fresh blood back to their corporeal, grave-bound body. It's like believing that it just happens is a bridge too far.
Thank you for this. 🐍⭐️
Excellent vid!! 👍
I remember a documentary series I was obsessed with like 12-15 years ago. It was narrated by Anthony Head and one episode was about Vampires and judging on the information I now am reminded of in this video, it was a very accurate documentary. I think it was called „Horror Mysteries“ or something
I know it’s not a topic of conversation for this channel specifically, but please tell me you’ve watched Flanagan’s “Midnight Mass.” I think it’s the greatest addition to Vampire narrative cannon since, “Let the Right One In.” Until watching this, I didn’t know early vampire reports posed enough existential questions to Catholic theology to be officially addressed. Which make’s Flanagan’s vampires as a device for religious horror all the more interesting. Again, I know modern narrative doesn’t fit within the scope of this channel, but Midnight Mass feels too relevant in light of your research not to mention.
Thanks for dropping some seriously awesome knowledge, again. 😊
Both wonderful films / shows!
Loved the series....
Similar to Guillermo Del Toros Chronos...
Bro how many people work on this channel? My dude stays cranking out that spooky goodness
1
That's just referring to the community of scholars
Them vampires are badass. 🦇🦇🦇
Great essay!
Right as I’m researching about “vampires” and you so happen to upload at that exact time. Probably Coincidental yet Bizarre. Thankyou again! Excellent video
This is going to be a good one.
I'm actually writing about Vampires and religion, mysticism, and the occult do have a big impact on it. I always wanted to write a Vampire story but didn't know how. Until I read the Necroscope books by Brian Lumley and his Vampires were the scariest I ever read in fiction. So I decided to begin writing a novel and took all my inspirations from vampire fiction and media that I liked in the '90s and learning about religion, and folklore. I sought an aim to combine gothic horror and mix it with Cosmic Horror for Lovecraft fans, and Apocalyptic horror found in religious eschatology and other genres of horror. By combining various genres of fiction I finally started crafting a story set in a post-apocalyptic world where Vampires and Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors exist, and the Vampires that I have written are very unique. They come in various clans with their own unique looks, styles, and even languages. Where each Vampire bloodline has a language that is otherworldly and is physically incapable of Human vocal chords to pronounce let alone understand.
would love to read it! Currently writing a fantasy including unique monsters with an emphasis on how they would function within a well visualized world system. Very much a pet project in its infancy, but it has led me to read others interpretations of the monstrous and into the world of mythology as well! Much Love and I hope u are well hydrated!
It's interesting that you note both the apparent carry-over from the witch craze to the vampire craze while also noting that Protestants looked down on the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox for their fear of vampires when Protestants had wholeheartedly engaged in witch trials. Do you think it was any sort of self-reflection as the Enlightenment took hold, or more just a case of "I may believe in witches, but at least I don't believe in vampires like those weirdos"?
I never thought I'd hear about Jure Grando from one of your videos, it's a legend from my part of the woods (the town where this allegedly happened, Kringa, is about an hour away from where I live)
I’m really pumped for this one.
A fascinating episode. ❤ 40 minutes felt like 10. The names & forms humans have given to the Other over the ages, and what the various monsters say about the cultures around them, are fascinating. I find the idea that the witch was exchanged for the vampire particularly interesting. What relation, if any, is there to tales of werewolves, their trials & hunts?
Love the use of the Joseph Wright painting, which I have seen.
Brian Lumley Necroscope series :) Love it, love Esoterica!
Fascinating. Thank you.
Watching this after watching the Nosferatu premiere on Christmas, the best part of that movie was that Willem Dafoe was a Hermetic philosopher and alchemist!!
A big congrats to you for nearly 500K subs, hard to imagine anyone getting that youtube famous without try on hauls haha :)
Absolutely watching right now to distract my anxiety from Gaza, but damn this is an amazing episode
Thank you so much ❤
Great to hear from you V! And yes, what a nightmare in Gaza.
Those titles just rolled off your tongue. Cool dude.
Outstanding. Thanks.
Thank you Professor
I truly enjoy listening to your videos. Thank you for sharing this wisdom.
Good timing for this to pop up in my recommended, seeing Nosferatu remake tomorrow. I love the classic German Bram Stoker rip off from the 1920’s, but I know the myth of vampires existed long before Bram Stoker put them into pop culture.
Fantastic theme Dr Sledge! I don't believe in vampires personally, but the folklore is fascinating. Heading over to Phillip's channel next 🖤
Reminds me of the pre-colonial vampiric or vampiric esque creatures of Pilipino/Malay/Indonesian mythology of the Pennangal/Manannagal/Aswang, as well as Mandurugo.
Even belief in Aswang have some parallels with Berserkers wearing animal skins or the Ye Nadloshi for the Dine. Used to help transform. How some scholars in Academia in the Philippines go over that some of the Aswang were actually shock troops during pre-colonial times and was essentially just made “evil” or purely malevolent by the Spanish authorities.
Damn man. That’s a lot of cross commonality!
22:33 "damn sparkling..." excellent haha
The idea of vampires draining levels seems to be Late Modern.
Fantastic
The idea of this vampire craze arising in changing times, being something of an early challenge for the Enlightenment and a last hurrah for older esoteric modes of thought, was really fascinating to me. The old world was dying. The new world struggled to be born. Then, curiously enough, was the time of vampires.
After having read Vermeir's article before, I could recognise some of his arguments in this particular video. Such a great article from a great scholar on the early modern imagination. Have a nice halloween!
Just in time for another banger! 😎
Nice hearing the shout out to Atun Shei!
This reminds me of the transporting and moving locations of the 22 mummies graves in April 3, 2021 from Cairo to Fustat. It was like they were moving the bodies in a group to see where the vampires in their spectral bodies were at elsewhere. Also worth noting the 22 mummies were and are the depiction of the 22 major arcana of tarot. But I feel the number 17 mummies is mis identified. 13:56 mentioning the mole shaped as a rose on the toe that appeared afterwards reminds me of the The Unicorn Tapestries or the Hunt of the Unicorn (French: La Chasse à la licorne) at the MET the rose that appears in the wound on the unicorn.
I could not of said this better👌✌️
The translations of certain vampire myths and the creature transformation being more werewolf-like has always reminded me of the story of Nebuchadnezzar being turned into a beast. That has to be one of the oldest stories of a transformation like this and has the same connotations of gaining unnatural power through blaspheming God, albeit different in that God changed him as opposed to gaining that power from another being as payment for blaspheming God or rejecting God.