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The Blood is the Life
By Rosemary Ellen Guiley
c. Visionary Living, Inc.
Blood and the life force in the blood are the food of vampires. The vampire takes blood and the life essence of blood, either literally or symbolically, thus robbing the living of life.
Because blood is the “river of life,” carrying the vital energy of the cosmos through the body, human beings have throughout history conferred upon it great mystical and magical powers. Blood is soul, strength and the rejuvenating force. Blood sacrifices, of humans and animals, are performed to unleash those powers and propitiate the gods with the greatest of all gifts. The blood of gods and monarchs, shed upon the fields, ensures the fertility and abundance of the crops. The drinking of the blood of one’s enemies — a widespread and ancient practice –enables one to acquire the strength of the enemy.
The Koreans have an ancient belief that the blood of a faithful son serves as an elixir of life to the dying. According to this tradition, when a parent lay near death, a son cut himself, such as on the thigh, and used his blood to prepare a magic elixir.
The strongest oath is the blood oath, in which the parties mingle their blood. The blood oath is meant to be unbreakable and transcends all other duties and obligations. He who betrays it commits a grievous sin. Thus the vampire, by consuming the blood of a victim, wields not only the power of life and death, but magical power as well, and establishes a connection to the victim that is difficult to break.
Blood is a potent ingredient in magical charms and spells: a drop of a person’s blood, used in a spell, can bring them under one’s power. In many cases, the blood of an evil person is believed to have the greatest magical power. For example, the blood of executed criminals is said to be a powerful protector against disease and bad luck, because of the energy of resentment and fury which is released upon execution. In East Prussian lore, the blood of executed criminals should be drunk for good luck. In Pomerania, a merchant who catches drops of the blood of a beheaded murderer on his handkerchief will be guaranteed an increase in business.
Similarly, the blood consumed by vampires, or the vampire’s own blood, has great magical potency, according to Eastern European folklore beliefs. It is always dangerous, but can be either a charm and a curse. When vampire CORPSES are disinterred and staked or cut up, the living must take care not to be sprayed by the corpse’s blood, for they will either go mad instantly, or die instantly. The violated corpses often exploded with sprays of gases, blood and decomposing flesh. These explosions were caused by the sudden release of the pressure inside the corpse caused by the buildup of gases. Thus, vampire corpses were carefully covered before mutilation, and most onlookers stood well away from the body. In Romanian lore, the staked vampire is believed to always send a geyser of blood high into the air. The blood, it is said, issues from a second heart that enables the vampire to stay alive beyond death.
In a normal death, blood coagulates quickly and thus would not spray from a corpse. However, in cases of a sudden end to the functions of the heart or central nervous system – such as a violent death – blood can reliquify.
Contrary to the destructive power of the vampire’s blood, it is believed that the blood has great healing properties. Consequently, victims of vampires should either smear themselves with the vampire’s blood or drink it, in order to secure release from the vampire’s curse. The remedy often failed, however. In the early 18th century, the Serbian village of Medvegia suffered several vampire episodes, including the case of Arnod Paole, who smeared himself with the blood of a suspected vampire, but died and became a vampire himself. During the same period, other persons in the village were falling victim to vampire attacks. One of these was a twenty-year-old woman named Stana, who gave birth to a child who died immediately after being born. Stana herself then fell seriously ill. (In many folklore traditions, such events are blamed on vampiric birth demons and viscera suckers.) She smeared herself with the blood of a vampire, but died, anyway, after a three-day illness. She, too, became a vampire. When her corpse was disinterred two months later, it was found to be undecayed, with a large quantity of “fresh” blood in the chest cavity. She was dispatched in the customary manner with a stake.
A variation of this remedy was reported in the Mercy Brown vampire case in Rhode Island in the 19th century. Brown’s ailing brother was given a medicine made with the ashes of her burned heart and liver. The brother died despite the medicine.
In the folklore of the upir in Russia, the blood of the vampire is mixed with flour to make bread. When eaten, the bread is believed to protect a person against vampire attacks.
Blood drinking in the vampyre subculture
The purported magical properties of blood continue to be the primary element of appeal in modern-day fascination with the vampire. In some cases, obsessions with blood lead people to the vampire myth, to either become absorbed by it, or to want to become living vampires who consume blood. Others want the association with blood but do not wish to drink it themselves. The mere association with blood conjures up magic and power desired by want-to-be vampires.
Most people who experiment with blood drinking find that it makes them quite nauseated. In addition, there are other hazards of serious illness – such as hepatitis, mad cow disease and HIV – and parasites that can be acquired from contaminated blood. Some blood drinkers screen their partners and participate in exchanges in which small amounts of blood from cuts and pricks are consumed. Some blood drinkers try drinking animal blood, including the watery blood from butchered meat; this also has illness hazards.
The metabolic disorders known as prophryia have been put forward as a cause of blood craving in some cases of living vampirism.
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Adapted from The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves and Other Monsters by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, published by Facts On File, 2005.
