Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside. Brad Steiger
still able to demand their obedience by means of certain incantations and spells. That same ancient tradition suggests that such communication with the unseen entities can be established by the sincere magician who seeks out the old spells.
The appearance of the elementals when discerned by the human eye is that of attractive males and beautiful females. Because they are created of the pure essences of their element, they may live for centuries; but because they were fashioned of terrestrial elements, their souls are not immortal, as are those of humans. If, however, an elemental should be joined in marriage to a human, their union can transform the creature’s soul into a spirit that may enjoy eternal life. Some of the greatest figures of antiquity such as Zoroaster, Alexander, and Merlin were reported to have been the children of elementary spirits.
While most traditions hold the elementals to be friendly to humans some authorities warn that each of the four elements contains a number of mischief makers and entities that tend more toward the demonic than the angelic.
It is interesting to note that all of the world’s major religions speak of a duality of the gods or demigods that came to Earth—some to exploit; others to teach; some to enslave; others to free.
In Arabian and Muslim traditions, the Jinns are evil demons who possess a wide variety of supernatural powers. Some scholars declare the Jinns a bit lower than the angels, because they were created of smoke and fire. Their leader is Iblis, once hailed as Azazel, the Islamic counterpart of the Devil.
The Jinns are mentioned frequently in the Qur’an, but the entities were known before the Prophet Muhammad wrote of their existence. In pre-Islamic Arabia, the Jinns were revered as godlike beings who inhabited a world parallel to that of humans.
The Jinns are accomplished shape-shifters, capable of assuming any form in their avowed mission to work evil on humans. On the other hand, Jinns may also, on occasion, influence humans to do good, and they may also perform good deeds for those who have the power to summon them. According to some traditions, King Solomon possessed a ring that gave him the power to summon the Jinns to fight beside his soldiers in battle. In addition, it is said that Solomon’s temple was constructed with the help of the Jinns.
Primarily, though, the Jinns are feared as creatures who exist for the purpose of tormenting humans. Some old beliefs affirm that a human dying an unrepentant sinner may become a Jinn for a period of time.
Many scholars of mysticism and the esoteric declare one type of Rakshasas as the Hindu equivalent of the Nephilim, the giants of the Bible, who declared war on the greater gods. The evil Rakshasas most often appear as beautiful women who drink the blood and feed off the flesh of men and women. The Rakshasas also possess shape-shifting abilities, and they take great delight in possessing vulnerable human hosts and causing them to commit acts of violence until they are driven insane.
In appearance, the Rakshasas are most often described as being yellow, green, or blue in color with vertical slits for eyes. They are feared as blood-drinkers and detested for their penchant for animating the bodies of the dead and stalking new victims.
The great Hindu goddess Kali is herself a vampire, and it is said that her image manifests over battlefields, her long tongue lapping up the blood of the fallen.
In the Shinto traditions, there are millions of Kami, nature spirits that can do either good or evil to humans. Although the Kami are by no means angelic, neither is it their sole purpose to harm humans. They can be brutal or benevolent, depending upon the intent or the purpose of the individual. Even the Kappa, a bloodsucking demon that haunts the night and is generally considered the most evil of the Kami, can reverse its nature and single out individual humans to teach both medical and magical practices.
The idea of Jinns later evolved in Western culture as the “genie in the lamp,” but real Jinns are shape-shifters who are mentioned often in the holy Qur’an.
The ancient Persians and Chaldeans named those angels who fell to Earth the Cacodaemons. Cast out of Heaven (another world, another universe) for rebelling against the prevailing order, their leader, Ahrimanes, was determined to rule Earth and the primitive humans who resided there. However, regardless of where Ahrimanes endeavored to establish his kingdom, the Agathodaemons, the representatives of universal law, prevented him from exploiting or interfering with the natural evolution of humans.
After attempting to wage a violent war of defiance on Earth against the Agathodaemons, Ahrimanes and his army were once again defeated. According to the Persians, the Cacodaemons were rejected from Earth and took refuge in the space between Earth and the fixed stars, a domain which is known as Ahriman-abad. It is from this dimension that Ahrimanes, resentful and revengeful, takes his pleasure in directing his demons to afflict and torment human beings. Throughout all of history, these paraphysical beings, mimicking our human forms, have walked among us unnoticed, sowing discord wherever they wander, sapping our soul energy, invading host bodies whenever possible, causing vulnerable humans to seek the blood of their fellow beings.
The Old Testament book of Leviticus (17:14) acknowledges that blood is “the life of all flesh, the blood of it is the life thereof’ …
There are numerous ancient legends that refer to a great war that occurred in “Heaven” before the defeated angels or demigods came to Earth; and, after the Nephilim had transgressed against the laws of God, there was another violent conflict that raged on Earth between the forces of light and darkness in humankind’s prehistory. It was the defeat of the armies of darkness that forced them to return to their noncorporeal state and withdraw to other dimensions of time and space. Because of the dark forces’ continued efforts to corrupt and to possess humans, some mystics argue that the warfare continues unabated and that the great prize is the spiritual essence of humankind.
Human Blood Becomes Sacred to the Old Gods
At some point in those fierce and frightening prehistoric years, there came the realization that the shedding of a person’s blood was connected with the release of the life force itself. And because it was required by the gods, blood became sacred.
After the gods in their various guises retreated to their other dimensional universe, some of their most devoted human servants recalled the power inherent in blood and the life force, and a large number of magical and religious rituals became centered around the shedding of blood. In an effort to call back the gods to Earth and beseech them to grant favors, thousands of members of ancient priesthoods raised chalices filled with the dark, holy elixir of life over thousands of altars stained with both animal and human blood. In an effort to become like the gods, many individuals began to practice the drinking of blood as it pulsed from the veins of their victims.
Biblical scholar Hyam Maccoby in his book The Sacred Executioner maintains that Cain was the hero in the original telling of the slaying of Abel in Genesis. Cain built the first city and became the patriarch of metallurgists, musicians, and pastoralists (Genesis 4:16–22). In Maccoby’s reconstruction of Genesis, Cain’s killing of his brother was not a vicious homicide, but the primeval human sacrifice that secured the civilization of the human race.
As civilization advanced and humankind began to free itself from the demands of the old gods and their priests who demanded blood sacrifice, the life force and the fluid that symbolized it demanded a new kind of respect. Blood became holy.
The Old Testament book of Leviticus (17:14) acknowledges that blood is “the life of all flesh, the blood of it is the life thereof,” but the children of Israel are instructed that they “shall not eat of the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.”
Again, in Deuteronomy 12:20–24, the Lord warns, “… thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth