Virgins, Vampires and Vagina Dentata

Well, I really couldn't put it off much longer. Lots of pictures will be stolen from The Celtic Rebel (he's always got such good stuff!), and Quinta Esentia (check out this True Blood post, as well as Lipsynchs!), as well as much inspiration from both and others. I've just read A Few Shots To Shaman's recent opus (part 1 & 2) which also has a few synchs with some of the stuff in this post. And vjesci left me this link in the comments Fangs on Film. So, get ready for another epically long post! I do a significant amount of quoting in this one, so my notes will be in a combination of parenthesis (my favorite form of communication (realliy, it is!)), and itallics. I wouldn't be surprised if my blog joins The Celtic Rebel in getting blocked by web censors after this post! There's a zillion vampire novels, shows and movies so I'm not really going to go "in depth" in any of them, otherwise we'd be here all week. However, my mom did leave me her True Blood season 1 DVDs, I guess assuming I would want to watch HB-hOe's glorious display of boobies flopping around in most of the episodes (which I do!). So, I will mention that show more than the rest, but obviously there's going to be parallels with most other vampire media. At first I thought this was going to be a nice vacation from my usual stuff, but I kept noticing tie-ins to previous posts here. So, lean back, put your feet up, and enjoy the show.

I almost added more "V" words to the title, but three seemed a perfect fit. As probably everyone in the synchromystic and semiotic blog-o-sphere is well aware, V/Vau/Vav in Hebrew has a value of 6; thus, VVV = 666. It can represent the letters u, v, and w, each with a value of 6. Vav's astrological correspondence is Taurus. It also carries the meaning of nail, like the three nails (VVV/666) which fastened JC to the cross/cube so that his spirit may fly free. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life seen below is sometimes esoterically seen as the crucifixion of Jesus, the three pillars being the three crosses of Jesus and the two theives. It is even said that the cross Jesus was crucified on was made of wood from the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden.

tree of "life"

I just finished watching classic vampire movie The Lost Boys (vampire/vam-pyre, some sort of firey resonance there), and when I turned it off, on the television was a very firey red sex scene where the man cut his chest with his thumb nail and pulled the woman close to drink his blood: another vampire movie! (It turned out to be an earlier adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula) What are the odds? Well, pretty good these days. The same blood-suckling act was carried out in the True Blood television series where Sookie drinks from Bill's chest. It also happens in an X-Files episode I saw while writing this, a vamp girl drinks from a human man's chest.

Anyways, in The Lost Boys, half-vampire girl Star cares for a very young half-vampire boy, Laddie. I thought the symbolism fit nicely as a "Madonna with Child" theme. Now that I think about a girl suckling from the chest of a male vampire, it's an odd reversal on the theme of Madonna with Child, which traditionally has Jesus at the breast of Mary. Below is a picture of Madonna as Jesus (a reversal of the roles of "The Madonna" or Virgin Mother and her son), and as a vampire.

The name Dracula comes from the House of Drakul (Dragon, Devil). Dracula meaning "son of the dragon" here, or as the dragon/serpent is a representation of the devil and/or lucifer, he is a "son of the devil." Even in one vampire movie I've seen, vampires were called sons of the devil; more on this below. So above, Madonna is the (Son)Daughter of God and the Devil. The Celtic Rebel mentioned in his Burning Ring of Fire series that "Peter Tosh believed Lucifer was, in fact, the head vampire." Lucifer/Devil/Dragon, father to Dracula/Vampires.

Also in The Lost Boys, Star is the girlfriend of vampire David, thus she is the "Star of David," and is lusted after by Michael (named for dragon-slayer archangel (He does slay David afterall), and he shares his name with Michael Corvin from Underworld, a descendent of the original immortal). Michael becomes a half-vampire like Star and Laddie by drinking David's blood and he is supposed to be Star's first kill; though it has a sexual quality to it as if she were a virgin: "her first" (it's clear none of them are actually virgins, so it's more realistic than recent vampire movies/shows!). Star and Michael do have sex on the night she is supposed to kill him.

The theme of sex is quite strong in vampire movies, books and television shows. In Interview With A Vampire, the vampires would prey on prostitutes or otherwise loose women, and might make it as far as foreplay, but never actually went beyond that. Maybe this is because without a heartbeat it would be difficult to acheive and maintain and erection? These days, the new pop-vampire books and subsequent movies have changed many points of the Anne Rice vampire myth, such as how vampires now do have sex. It may be that the changes are bringing modern vampire lore more in line with a realistic view of vampires. While the non-sexual vampires are found in myth, the very human vampires are found in history, and we can assume they did have sex, though what a blood-lusting violent person would do in the sack might not even be considered sex by traditional standards (while today it may be becoming the norm). In Twilight, the sex is so violent that the headboard of the bed gets broken and the pillows are all torn up. In True Blood, people who have sex with vampires are known as "Fangbangers," and vampires are known for being very agressive during sex. In the show, Jason (a human) was being interrogated over the deaths of several women he had sex with who were later murdered, and the detective asked him if he "kills them then fucks them, or fucks them then kills them?" The theme of sex and death started to get noticed at this blog in the recent series beginning with Heart Shaped Coffin, and continuing with the rest of that on-going series. Speaking of vampires, hearts and coffins... What does one do when they want to kill a vampire? Stab them in the heart! (A common symbol for "love," or more directly, sex.)

Then the Babylonians managed to edge the plot slightly in the direction of fully endorsed Vampireship by introducing the 'Ekimmu'. The After-life suddenly opened up to everybody - God and 'fellah' alike. Basically all you needed to do was drop down dead and have no well-intentioned friends to cover you with sand. After a suitable time passed the departed would leap up, re-embodied and ready for anything. Especially of a sexual nature. The bonus for being a member of the Ekimmu set was that you entered your new profession massively endowed. It is said that the maidens subjected to the advances of the Ekimmu and his sacred weapon were at first terrorised and then overwhelmed by this mighty phallus. And this is where the Vampire thing kicks in. Once the Ekimmu had had its wicked way with the girls he whipped out their entrails and gorged on their blood. I know it's not what you might call standard vampire procedure but more elements have been added to the lore. (http://www.vampyres.ca/)

Vampire history may begin before Adam and Eve. Lilith was the first wife of Biblical Adam in the Garden of Eden. She was created along with Adam, making her equal, which apparently Adam didn't like (perhaps a microcosm of God and Lucifer, where Lucy wanted to "be like god"?); her name means "one who lays under," and she didn't feel like living up to it. After Adam, she hooked up with Samael (Angel of Death & Soul Collector, and tempter of Eve), and she became a demon who preyed on pregnant women and infants. There is also a belief that there is a second smaller moon (which came here from somewhere else at the same time as the moon) called Lilith. I remember a thread at the abovetopsecret forum where someone had a recording that was made of a "secret masonic meeting" where the members talked about how there was a second moon hidden behind the first, and about the aliens who used the moons as spaceships to come to earth. Whatever the story may be, the (second)moon is connected to Lilith and to all vampires.

Lilith, “she of the night” or “the howler”, said to be Adam’s first mate, had wings and was always portrayed with owls. Lilith was said to have left Adam because he tried to dominate her.

pic from my goddess post

The Black Madonna has her roots in this pre-patriarchal first partner of Adam, Lilith. She thus represents the strength and equality of womanhood-a proud, forthright, and commanding figure-as opposed to the strictly subordinate image of the conventional White Madonna as seen in church representations of Jesus’ mother. It was said that Lilith knew the secret name of God [a secret held also by Mary Magdalene, ‘the woman who knew the All’] -in this case it would have been Lucifer’s original name Be’el-zebub. She is black because in gnostic thought Wisdom (Sophia), is black, having existed in the darkness of Chaos before the Creation.

beeyonce, "black madonna"

In ancient Sumer, the key females of the royal succession were all venerated as lilies, having such names as Lili, Luluwa, Lilith, Lilutu and Lillette. (source)

Having wings and knowing the true name of God reminds me of the source of "veil" symbolism and wings on goddesses going back to the hymen of a virgin. From my post, Bee Seeing You Through the Veil: "Neith/Isis was known as the Veiled Goddess, and thus the reference on her temple inscription to 'lifting the veil' is intriguing, for Bees are often called hymenoptera, stemming from the word hymen, meaning "veil winged," representing that which concealed the holy parts of a temple, as well as the veil or hymen."

The next closest thing in mythology would be the succubus. Succubi seek sexual relations with humans, mostly those leading celebate lives. Despite being depicted as female (in contrast to the male incubus), succubi are actually male and have a penis! This is interesting, especially after watching Interview With a Vampire in which the relationships between the male vampires had an overt homoerotic quality.

Well most of the vampire stuff concerns virgin girls and oversexed people in general. However, a less well known part of it is the gay/lesbian side. (Lost Boys: "My own brother, a goddamn shit-sucking vampire!") Vampire friendly clubs are mostly gay friendly clubs which have fetish rooms and S&M dungeons. Some wont even let you in unless you are covered in leather, buckles and spikes (gimp mask gets in free!). One of the Wachowski brothers, those guys who made The Matrix films, is into fetishism; which probably explains the Merovingians "Club Hel" with all it's vampires and other baddies dressed in freakish pleather outfits. The best movie to fit this theme is obvisouly The Rocky Horror Picture Show which features Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite from Planet Transsexual in the galaxy Transylvania. Frank-n-furter is a common name for hot dogs. Speaking of hotdogs, 12 year old Oskar(Mayer Wiener?) has a relationship with a vampire of "indeterminate gender" in evocatively titled vampire novel: Let The Right One Slip In. A similar movie to Rocky Horror, sans the aliens, was made by Madonna. (Madonna, please leave the movie making to your ex!) Filth And Wisdom "revolves around a Ukrainian immigrant who finances his dreams of rock glory by moonlighting as a cross-dressing dominatrix."

the great vampire con. convention i mean...

Moving on, we come to vampires who in occult lore prey only on the energy of the living, not their actual blood. Today, some people call themselves psychic (or psionic), etheric, or energy vampires. It was believed that vampires left the grave only in etheric form, like an asteral traveler or out-of-body experience, and drain the life force from the etheric bodies of the living. In some channeled information about the nature of the after-life, it was explained that souls who refuse to reincarnate (after about 10 years it becomes necessary to continue to exist), instead remain on the etheric plan and feed off the life force of the living (utilizing religions to channel psychic energy to the desired source). The result is that they lose their natural forms and become grotesque giants; basically demons.

For the source of "vampires" of history, I'll just quote this book which I've been dying to quote for sometime now. I'll try to cut it down as short as possible, so you might want to check it out on your own for more details.

The Dragon Legacy: The Origins of Vampirism
The Turkish, or properly Galatian word Uber, meaning ’witch’ [...], as Upari, we discover that originally Uber - Vampire - meant Overlord. In summary vampire [...] the witch or druid - was a Scythian High Queen or King: an Overlord. We can say with confidence then that real vampirism was indulged in by living beings who, unerringly, were members of the pre-christian and anti-christian high nobility and royalty. The most famous vampire stories, those of Dracula, Bathory and de Rais, support this conclusion. The historical evidence therefore supports the etymological origin of the word ’vampire’ - An Overlord.

I'm reminded that someone once said that Jesus was the first vampire because he died and returned to life as an immortal. His disciples drank his "blood" (wine) and were also promised eternal life. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:54) The Christian mass has been described as cannabalistic because of such symbolism. Jesus is thought to have married Mary Magdalane (possibly at the wedding at Cana where he turned water into wine) and with her spawned the Holy Bloodline down through the Merovingian (and other) kings. The blood is also described as the true Holy Grail. Above we can see the Merovingian with "grail" martini; he keeps vampires in his service, along with other non-human beings. Speaking of Jesus, I'm reminded of the Will Smith movie I Am Legend which presented Will's character as a Jesus figure whose blood holds the cure to a plague which has turned the rest of the world into vampires! Folklore often held that certain types of people would return to life (or un-death?) as vampires, in this case it was plague victims. The original story which became The Last Man on Earth and I Am Legend inspiried the zombie movies too, which is why there's some similarities. Hmm, Jesus asks us to drink his blood (vampire) and eat his flesh (zombie)...

Above, Jesus, the King of Kings (2K), and Mary M. (MM) and the implied red V shape, hinting at the grail. Below, Viktor of Underworld (a title which resonates Hell-Heaven, Otherworld, Afterlife, Oz, Wonderland, etc.) drinks blood from a grail, he is a Vampire Overlord. Next to him is "Vlad the Impaler" over checkerboard, and above that is a scene from Underworld showing the classic royalty/elite idea of vampires. In the top right is Drake from Blade: Trinity, the original vampire, holding vampire merchandise (Count Chocula?). He was unearthed in a Sumerian Ziggurat, possibly the Tower of Babel. The giant mud-brick step pyramid, like the Great Pyramid, is just a base for the top, which in this case was a temple (similar to Central and South American step-pyramids). The temple was originally to the Moon god Sin/Nana. Ancients held the moon as cheif of the lumenaries which ruled their stellar cults. A similar theme is found in Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino vampire gore fest From Dusk Till Dawn where the "Titty Twister" biker bar is at the end revealed to be the top (sacrificial temple) of a Mayan/Aztec step-pyramid.

The similar source of the word for vampire (Uber) leads to witches and witchcraft, or wicca, as well as daemons or inter-dimensional beings, aliens, angels, elves, etc.

The Dragon Legacy: The Origins of Vampirism
Wicca, derived from the same Saxon word as Willow, means to "bend or yield" ones spirit to that of a daemon (Greek, meaning praeter human intelligence or inspiration), giving the christian idea of possession, though erroneously. (See Opening the Stargate for a little bit on Alyson Hannigan as Willow.) The witch was indeed possessed by a daemon and that daemon was certainly praeter-human and not of this world. This is confirmed in the word genius, meaning inborn intellect or inspiration. Closely related to this word is genie, meaning a spirit, as in genius loci - ’a spirit of place’. In Arabic the jinni is a spirit of fire or inspiration.

brand of christian merchandise sold in my mall in store: C2K

The theme of fire (genie being a fire spirit) is connected to sexuality ("burning passion," to "stoke the flames of love," etc.) and comes up a lot at Celt's blog. Fire is one of the methods used to kill vampires as well. So, these quotes are dedicated to The Celtic rebel:

Her lap is a sacrificial altar; her hairs, the sacrificial grass; her skin, the soma-press. The two labia of the vulva are the fire in the middle [Brhad-Âranyaka Upanisad, 6.4.3]

(Shiva's methods to attain enlightenment) "At the start of sexual union/ Keep attentive on the fire in the beginning,/ And so continuing,/ Avoid the embers in the end.

Moving on... Dracula's habit of carting off boxes full of earth from his homeland was also practiced by the Scythians who believed it was the: "source of sovereignty and power and that ones soul was linked to ones homeland." The Scythians were known to make cloaks out of the scalps of their fallen enemies. They, like many other groups, drank the blood of their friends and foes, and even ate the flesh at times.

The Dragon Legacy: Scythians and Druids
The Sumerians appeared first in Mesopotamia in 3500 BC. Prior to their emergence they were preceded by the Ubaid migrants from what is now southern Romania, from Carpathia and Scythia, who had fled south to escape the Black Sea flood of 4000 BC. Dated to about 5000 BC, archaeologists working in Tartaria in the Ubaid territory of Transylvania, discovered a ’tepes’ or Rath under which they found a fire-pit. Buried amongst the ashes were the human remains of a cannibalistic sacrificial victim and two clay tablets. On these were inscribed the name of Enki ((representing)Samael), the number of Anu - 60 - and the image of a goat, Enki again, and a Tree - (representing) Lilith. In Hinduism, Siva is the Goatherd of the Mountains. The pictographic nature of the inscriptions convinced the archaeologists that the language was the forerunner of Sumerian and so they called it proto-Sumerian. Making it fairly obvious that the Sumerians were originally Ubaid Overlords from Central Eurasia. (Remember Drake from Blade: Trinity, found in a Sumerian step-pyramid)

The symbol of Samael the Serpent reclining in the Branches of Lilith’s Apple Tree in the Garden of Eden actually depicts the concept of the Dragon eating the fruit itself. This can also be found slightly more abstractly but conversely and paradoxically more graphically at the same time, in the Tantric equivalent of the serpent entwined around a female figure.

dont overlook the obvious lilith and mary magdalane and merovingian connection of red hair!

The most potent vampire is the Dracoi or female Dracoica, from whence the House of Drakul obtained its name, meaning ’Satan’ or ’Dragon’ whilst Drakulea or Dracula means ’son of Satan’ or ’son of the Dragon’. Lying at a close second place comes the Stregoi or female Stregoica, a being that manifests itself as either a wolf or a raven. We can see where this is leading, can’t we?

The Stregoi or Stregoica represents both the Morrighan or Morgana, the Valkyrie and the Werewolf or Verewolf, which is simply another manifestation of the vampire. (Remember in Dracula, Dracula could turn into a werewolf.) Typically and especially where wolves were in short supply, the werewolf was represented variously by the Bear and the Fox; and elsewhere by the crocodile (the Sobekh of Egypt - patron and protector of Royalty - whose fat was used as the Messach or anointing oil of the pharoahs, the Messiahs or priest kings).

In this neck of the woods it was also common to replace the werewolf with the Panther who was sacred to the lunar goddess Diana and also to Bacchus (Dionysus). Panther was the clan name of Jesus (Yeshua ben Panthera.), and much earlier, the Ubaid priests wore the skins of Panthers as their totem animal. The Panther’s feeding ritual involves it opening the jugular vein in its victims neck and drinking the blood prior to eating the carcass.

middle image is of lunar goddess selene/luna/diana/lucifer

The association between werewolves and the moonlight which drove them loopy, according to fable, is repeated and reinforced by the traditional belief that witches (aka vampires) were sacred to Diana and worshipped her by the light of the full moon. The link between the full moon and the vampire of the Gothic Romance is also well represented in tradition. The reason that moonlight drove werewolves round the twist and elicited devotion from witches was because the full moon was seen as the menstrual moon that signaled the impending flow and was worshipped particularly by the witches of Italy and the surrounding area. These ladies were called Strega, that is the Italian name for a witch and rather than worshipping the full moon they were celebrating what the moon and Diana stood for - food for the soul - the blood of virgins!

In True Blood it is mentioned that baby blood is the most tasty to vampires, with virgin blood a close second. In the show, Sookie human love of vampire Bill was a virgin when they got together, as was Bella in Twilight. Chapter III of the Book of the Law: "The best blood is of the moon (menstrual), monthly: then the fresh blood of a child, or dropping from the host of heaven: then of enemies; then of the priest or of the worshippers: last of some beast, no matter what."

The traditional male vampire is characterized as a "handsome aristocrat, fatal to women... he is interested only in virgins; he sucks their necks; they die; he lives"(Joan Acocella)

Symbols of virginity and sexuality explored at this blog include the veil, apples, hearts and flowers. Speaking of hearts, here's a great scene from True Blood:

Sookie is working off her extra libido energy from drinking vampire blood by doing yard work. She tells her grandma that she is struggling between what shes thinking and how she feels for the vampire (Bill). She says: "I dont know if I should trust my head or my..." She looks down, and her grandma adds "Heart." They both leave "vagina" unsaid, though it's quite obvious. Grandma: "Well, it is scary opening your heart for a guy."

I already posted this link, but incase you still haven't read it, see previous long post: Opening the Stargate for a little bit on apples. The Celtic Rebel, at his blog, has gone in depth with the "V" and heart shapes, as well as a "vampiric" energy grid design which started out as a single X in a box, and grew into a whole grid which connected several of the themes he explores there.

If you do read his blog (I recommend it!) then you know what I'm talking about, otherwise let me skip ahead and point out an interesting synch. In Burning Ring of Fire IV, Celt comes up with an interesting shape seen below. His explanation:

Playing with Geometry on my bar napkin, it occurred to me that were I to convert the SE into their Greek equivalents, the word “SEX” itself is an entire quadrant of the M/W spiritual gird. Continuing on, since a V is technically a woman’s frontal arrow pointing to her sweet spot, there is an O below the V. Putting those together, not only looks a bit like Taurus [the second major constellation], but rather devilish as well. Does that mean anything? I can’t say for sure. Maybe?

The design he is talking about is seen below. Remember that Taurus is the constellation associated with the Hebrew letter V/6, and it also has the birthstone Emerald which is associated with Lucifer, the father of vampires. And as he said it does indeed look devilish, similar to the shape explored recently at A few Shots To Shaman, "For Dead Or Dying" Parts 1 & 2.

To take a girls virginity is called "deflowering." She flows, or is a flow-er = flower. The vampire-wolF & the Flow. In alchemy, menstruum (the menses, mestrual fluid) is a solvent capable is dissolving solid material. The idea would be the dis-solving of the gross material body, or imperfect state. The purified elements are brought together again as the Philosopher's Stone. The Rose is a potent symbol in alchemy as well as general esoterism and basic everyday symbolism as well. In True Blood, vampire Bill buys human Sookie flowers for one of their dates, the flowers were red and white roses.

alchemyguild.org:
The rose has obvious connections with sexual energy in alchemy. The “rose colored blood of the alchemical redeemer” or the “warm red tincture” were references to healing effects of purified (alchemically distilled or sublimated) sexual energy. [...] In other words, rose-colored blood carries the natural essence or soul, while ordinary blood simply functions on the physical level to supply oxygen to cells, etc. That is the meaning of the alchemical phrase, “The soul of the Stone is in its blood.”

The above quote (blood as "essence of the soul") combines psychic vampirism with blood suckers. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula states that "The blood is the life." The "Healing effects of purified sexual energy" reminds me of the effect that Vampire blood has on humans in the television series Moonlight and True Blood. In both, vampire blood is used as a drug by humans with the main effect of increasing the users senses and libido. In True Blood is it called V or V-Juice. Below is a pic of vampire themed vodka and a fictional advertisement for the synthetic blood drank by vampires. Inbetween these is the symbol for planet Earth from the movie Stargate. Remember that Lucifer, father of all Vampires, was cast down to Earth like a lightning bolt. Below it is an inverted version of the glyph which mirrors the picture of the "V" with blood dripping from it on the vodka bottle (Similar to the V on the Vampire-Con poster above). As A few Shots To Shaman might say, the two branches of the V/Y shape merge into One, the purified energy of male + female in the blood droplet.

alchemyguild.org:
In spiritual alchemy, the single red rose represents the mystic center of a person, his or her heart of hearts - one’s true nature. It also represents the process of purification to reveal one’s essence or the inner “pearl beyond price.”

Alchemist Daniel Maier discusses the symbolism of the rose in his Septimana Philosophica: “The rose is the first, most beautiful and perfect of flowers. It is guarded because it is a virgin, and the guard is thorns. The Gardens of Philosophy are planted with many roses, both red and white, which colors are in correspondence with gold and silver."

Because of its association with the workings of the heart, the rose in alchemy has come to symbolize secrets of the heart or things that cannot be spoken or an oath of silence in general. In the folded structure of the rose, the flower seems to be concealing a secret inner core. “Mystery glows in the rose bed and the secret is hidden in the rose,” wrote the twelfth-century Persian alchemist Farid ud-din Attar.

In the above picture, the flowers in the bottom right are five-petal cistus. The spade shaped bush is given more meaning by reading The Celtic Rebel's A Burning Ring of Fire [IV]. The painting of Jesus was in a church I went to recently for a funeral. It depicts the "Blood and Water" which flowed out of Jesus' heart when it was pierced with the Spear of Destiny. This odd mixture returned vision to the eyes of the Roman soldier who did the spearing (don't ask why a half-blind soldier got the job of stabbing Jesus), and was caught in the Holy Grail. The Philosopher's Stone (Stone of the Wise, Elixer, Universal Panacaea, Cornicopea, Holy Grail) comes in two flavors, White and Red. The first one you make is the White Stone which clears the way for the Red Stone. Jesus turned Water into Wine at an (Alchemical) Marriage ceremony, which some believe was actually his wedding to Mary Magdalane. The Metallica album cover design in the above picture was made by mixing blood and semen together.

The explanation of these fantasies is surely not hard. A nightly visit from a beautiful or frightening being, who first exhausts the sleeper with passionate embraces and then withdraws from them a vital fluid; all this can point only to a natural and common process... blood is commonly an equivalent for semen. (Jones, 119)

angelina jolie and her vial of vital fluid

Menstruum (menstrual fluids) is the name of the solvent in alchemy, usually in plant alchemy, distilled red wine does the trick. Ros(e) in alchemy is Dew and is used as a distilling agent and was collected in large sheets by alchemists in the hours before dawn. Hmm, this reminds me of the old practice of consummating the marriage over a white sheet so that it would catch the blood and provide evidence that the bride was indeed a virgin (Remember this pic from Heart Shaped Coffin?). Speaking of dew being collected on sheets (symbolic veils?) at dawn: in The Dawn of Astronomy, the author makes the claim that Isis (the veiled goddess) represented the Dawn and the Twilight (vamp movies: From Dusk Till Dawn and Twilight). In fact, in the 4th Twilight novel "Breaking Dawn," (breaking the hymen/veil) Bella has had sex with her vampire lover and lost her virginity. The Germanic origins of 'dew' (deaw, dau, tou, dauwaz) in alchemistic false etymology have been linked with Devil (deofol, diubul, tiuful).

The Dragon Legacy: The Rose of Sarai
The cistus (flower) is white with deep, blood red blotches, like the dappling of menstrual blood. The cistus belongs to the family cistacea and is also known as the gum cistus whose botanical genus is ladanifer from which is obtained laudanum, the dream-bestowing prize of poets and visionaries across Europe and the Middle-East, including Thomas de Quincy who, having taken it, were transported into the darkest, most terrifying realms of the Underworld or the highest reaches of Heaven, both being the deepest recesses of their own psyches. (Laudanum was often added to Absinthe, and I believe Johnny Depp does so in the movie From Hell. "Absinthe is the aphrodisiac of the self. The green fairy who lives in the Absinthe wants your soul." - Dracula by Bram Stoker )

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matt. 6:28-29)

Sheba, as the Lily of the (Nile) Valley, the nymphaea lotus and the the rose of Sharon: the ladanifer, was being likened unto a living, narcotic pharmacopoeia. As neither of these plants grow in Northern Europe, we have contented ourselves with the nearest familiar symbols, those being the virginal Fleur de Lys and the Plantagenet or English Rose.

The Rose represents therefore the magical menstrual flow of Solomon’s beloved, whilst the name Sharon or Sarah means princess. The Rose of Sharon is therefore the Royal Blood, the Sang Real; and the San Graal, the Holy Blood of the Holy Grail or rosi-crucis. As the Latin Ros-Sara or rosary which is devoted to the Virgin Mary, the pure white Lily, which itself is the "dew of the princess."

The word Rose in Germanic means Horse, from Hros, a deity who is identifiable with the goddesses Rhiannon and Epona, who were symbolized by the white mare and immortalized in chalk, hill carvings across Britain. [...] The Hros [...] were the goddesses who conducted the King to the Otherworld. This was exactly the job of Sheba, the Rose of Sharon, and all the other watery nymphettes in history. So the Rose of Sharon, whilst referring to the flower of the royal menses, also refers to the function of that fluid as a method of transport to the otherworld.

The "horse" connection was an interesting find. (Horse from Hros/H-Ros/Dew) The Goddess is associated with water, the chaotic waters of creation, and the bitterness of the sea. Sea in Latin is Mare (Some goddesses have names like Mary). The god of the Sea is Posiedon who is also the god of horses, the females of the species being known as Mares. The Moon also has mucho goddess connections and many locations on the moon, which are also the sites of NASA missions/landings, are named as various seas. The dark areas are the "seas" of the moon, and the shape they form, sometimes known as the Man on the Moon, has also been seen as a Rabbit on the moon. The rabbit (who has been connected to stargates, see Live From the Logosphere's work.) is the one who transports Alice to the Otherworld, like the Horse/Hros goddesses. A white rabbit who draws blood from the necks of Grail questing knights in Monty Python and the Holy Grail guards a cave/entrance to the Underworld.

Keeping on the tasty theme of menstrual blood, John Allegro helps me connect Sex & Death in his fantastic book The Sacred Mushroom And the Cross:

Should menstrual discharge occur when the moon was not visible the blood was reckoned to have uncontrollable power: “if this female force should issue when the moon or the sun is in eclipse, it will cause irremediable harm; no less so when there is no moon. At such seasons sexual intercourse brings death and disease upon the man.”

There is another reference to menstrual blood in the description Pliny gives of a fabulous dragon called the basilisk. It could apparently. kill bushes with its breath, scorch grass, burst rocks,’ and put other serpents to rout. It was its blood, however, that was most in demand. According to the Magi, it brought a successful outcome to petitions made to gods and kings, cured diseases, and disarmed sorcery. This last claim was also made for menses, if daubed like Passover blood (Exod 12:7), on the subject’s doorposts.’ The name basiisk actually means, “womb-blood”,’ that is, menses. Pliny adds that some people call it “Saturn’s blood”, which looks like a reminiscence of the same verbal origin, since the name Saturn is partly composed of a Sumerian word ShA-TUR, “womb”.’

An interesting side note is that John also feels a strong connection between menstrual blood and the color purple, as well as the idea of "Blue Blood" (Vampire Overlords again). The Basilisk lends it's name to the large church of the Vatican known as St. Peter's Basilica. It was a dragon (Dracula) creature who, like Medusa, had a killer gaze which would kill anyone that met it. In fact, there are many parallels with Medusa, and Medusa type deities, to the vampire legends. (Remember earlier I mentioned Posieden? Well, he raped Medusa which caused Athena to turn her from beautiful to hideous. Posieden also carries the Trident, which is barely seen in the picture of Kali below.) Medusa was often depicted with fangs and her tongue sticking out. She always usually connected to serpents (dragons?) as well. In my 4 part series on Medusa, I found a number of very similar myths and legends from around the world which match the Medusa myth. One interesting detail about all of those stories is that fits in nicely here is that they all had an insatiable blood lust. Medusa is not shown to be quite as vampiric (despite her appearance), but that is the only thing that is lacking from a perfect fit with all these other tales of blood sucking and heart eating demons. Another thing I surmised in my series was that Medusa was a representation of the moon, more specifically, the moon during a solar or lunar eclipse (remember that during a lunar eclipse the moon looks blood red). Since I'm sure most people missed that series, and probably don't want to read 4 more blog posts after this one, I'll quote some of the similarities for you.

Earlier I showed a picture of Selene the moon goddess (also the name of the main vampire chick in Underworld), with an indication that she also represents diana, luna, and lucifer. Interestingly, wikipedia shows the same picture of Selene with alternate names including lucifer. This is because the name mearly means "bright, shining" and the moon is indeed bright, being highly reflective and lighting the night. Another connection is that the planet Venus, also called Lucifer, has phases just like the moon. Venus is the planet associated with the Devil/Lucifer due to it being the second brightest object in the sky after the sun (god). Immanuel Velikovsky in his much maligned work Worlds in Collision suggests that Venus/Lucifer may have at one time (in human hisory) been a comet which was then trapped by the sun's gravity. He asserts that the old names for the planet meant "bearded" or "having a mane of hair," which are a result of it's cometary tail; and as such was associated with dragons/serpents. The reason I mention that is that Medusa is also quite hairy, often being depicted with full facial hair. Remember, the succubi were really male demons. (Medusa Touch part 2.) Speaking of succubi (and psychic vampires), Medusa is oddly reminicent of the female vampires of the Phillipines, those night-time bloodsuckers, the Visayan manananggal ("self-segmenters") who would detach their upper bodies and fly through the night looking for victims (like an asteral projection?).

I spent a lot of time connecting Medusa to the moon, and in my research I came across similar deities who were also connected to the moon. Medusa Touch part 4: There is the moon god (male) Khonsu, associated with knowledge and time; and as such often represented along with the ever present Thoth. Khonsu "appears in the well known 'Cannibal Hymn' (Utt. 173-4) as a bloodthirsty deity who assists the deceased king in catching and slaying those gods that the king 'feeds upon' in order to absorb their strength. Specifically, it refers to him as 'Khonsu who slew the lords, who strangles them for the King, and extracts for him what is in their bodies.' Though only mentioned once in the Pyramid Texts, he is also referred to in Spell 258 of the Coffin Texts, where he is 'Khonsu who lives on hearts'." Sonds a lot like those Scythian witch-druid Overlords who gave us the word vampire. Another similar deity was actually the face in the center of the Aztec Sun Stone, the Aztec's version of the Mayan calendar. The face looks a lot like Medusa, even having it's tongue sticking out: "The tongue, stuck out is the form of an obsidian knife, indicates that the diety demands to be fed with blood and human hearts." (Medusa Touch part 3) In the picture above is the goddess Kali, known as the "night of death" who carries away the spirits of slain warriors and animals. Her name means "appointed time" and can mean "death." This reminds me of Interview With A Vampire where Lestate says that they (vampires) are death.

I hope I don't ruin his future post, but Celt has been talking about doing a post called "Romance is Dead." I'd have to say that at this point I would have to agree with him. Girls humping 200 year old corpses, succubi sucking energy and blood, and heart-eating demons... which brings me to my next point: Vagina Dentata.

Look up again at the Medusa montage, the picture in the bottom left was turned on it's side on purpose. What does that look like to you? ... I'll give you a hint, it's been connected to roses, hearts and V's... give up? A big hairy tooth-filled vagina, otherwise known as the Vagina Dentata.

anyone else think parker posey was really hot as a vampire?

In Blade: Trinity, an ex-vamp boy-toy turned vampire slayer says of his former vamp lover (above) that: "Her fangs are located in her vagina." Talk about sex and death! In True Blood, the flaming gay cook claims that "all men fear the puss."

In 2005, inventor Sonette Ehlers introduced The Rapex, an anti-rape female condom which can be inserted into the vaginal canal like a diaphragm. The product is lined with microscopic barbs which attach to a rapist's penis and which must be surgically removed. In an article about the Rapex, Ehlers stated that she was inspired to invent the device after meeting a victim who told her, "If only I had teeth down there."
(randomnessunexplained.blogspot.com)

There's a strange weaponization of the vagina going on here. In the cyberpunk novel Snowcrash, a girl has an anti-rape device inside her vag which consists of a needle with fast acting knock-out poison. Unfortunately she forgets about it when she has sex... In From Dusk Till Dawn one of the male characters (Sex Machine?) has a gun-codpiece; ok it's not a vagina, but it's still a deadly genital (it shows up in the guitar case in Desperado too). I just watched an X-Files on TV which had some vampiric themes with plenty of sex and death. In the episode, a highly arousing shapeshifting alien was having sex with people who would then die of severe heart problems afterwards (their arteries would explode, severe enough for you?).

if you see this girl, run!

Notice the rose in the above (right) movie poster: "every rose has it's thorns."

If there’s one thing the new horror flick Teeth teaches us, it’s that nothing sours a romantic soirée like a vagina dentata. The phrase - Latin for “vagina with teeth” - conjures men’s primal fear of sex, the opposite sex, the word “vajayjay,” and dentistry.

The term seems to have come into use in the early 20th century, around the time Sigmund Freud was dreaming up his theories about castration complexes. But the idea has roots in numerous ancient cultures. There are Native American tales like the Ponca-Otoe story in which Coyote spends a night snuggled between the sexy daughters of an evil old witch. One girl warns him that they have lethal jaws in their private parts. So Coyote kills the other girl and the witch. Then, according to Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz’s 1984 book American Indian Myths and Legends, he bashes out his gal pal’s vaginal grill “except for one blunt tooth that was very thrilling when making love.” (thephoenix.com)

Erich Neumann relays one such myth in which “A fish inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother; the hero is the man who overcomes the Terrible Mother, breaks the teeth out of her vagina, and so makes her into a woman.” (randomnessunexplained.blogspot.com)

The vagina with teeth reminds me of the Hellmouth theme covered in a recent post. Something about putting your most sensitive part into a dark abyss... Is a movie like Teeth part of the "gay agenda" to make us all like South Park's Mr. Garrison who "doesn't trust anything which bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die."? (If you don't get it, look at the picture below.) It seems to indicate a fear of losing our manhood (skip that if your a chick), which reminds me of the Fight Club post I did recently. In Donnie Darko, Donnie says being a Smurf is illogical because "why would you want to live if you didn't have a dick?" Sex is an initiation into man/womanhood, and is symbolic of higher initiations, and vice versa. This may indicate a fear of failing the initiation into adulthood and having no reason to live (like the smurfs).

Every theme mentioned in the title: virgins, vampires and vagina dentata, seems (to me at least) to be represented in the first picture (repeated below). Well, thanks for reading, see you in the S&M dungeon of a vampire bar near you!