Vampires » garlic

Safety from Vampires!

holiday — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:21:29 +0000

It’s so reassuring to me that in legends, vampires cannot enter your home unless you invite them! That makes them almost safer than humans! Humans who bear you ill will can smash in through a window, charge through your wall with a chainsaw, and such. Vampires can’t touch you if you’re safe and cozy inside. If a vampire’s standing outside waiting to do you harm, too bad for them! You can even stand right up at the doorway or window and stick your tongue out at the vampire, or bite your thumb at it! You can dance a little jig and insult its vampire prowess all you want, and there’s nothing it can do as long as you don’t step outside or invite it in. You can just bring out some garlic, have yourself a cup of tea, and sleep peacefully inside until sunrise!
There are lots of ways to protect yourself from vampires. Hang garlic cloves all around your house. Hang up bells. Throw some poppy seeds across your porch. Pour some unbroken lines of salt across entryways, and sleep in a circle of salt. Wrap silver chains around your doors! Hang up a crucifix. Keep some holy water handy.
Why do these things work? Salt is a common protective tool against demons and evil beings of all sorts. It was held as important from even ancient times. It’s essential to humans, has been used in rituals, and used as a preserver, of course. It could keep things from decaying, or at least slow the process. It was soon ascribed with magical powers; the ability to keep evil away.
Garlic was used in many cultures, and much folklore has garlic protecting against all sorts of evil, including werewolves.
Other sorts of plants and leaves like holly and juniper would protect against vampires. Beliefs about different substances that warded off evil were applied to vampire creatures as well. Also, vampires are said to be unable to cross a thicket of wild rose or hawthorn. These are protecting plants against evil, from unknown origins.
Many cultures, including Greek and Chinese, have myths about spirits that cannot cross moving bodies of water. This has been applied to the vampire as well, over time.
Holy water and crucifixes come, of course, from the Christian mythologies about protection from devils and demons. Water blessed by a priest would be destructive to any agent of evil. Crucifixes, the symbol of sacrifice and God’s love, would surely protect from any creature of Satan. Silver may also have some religious connections, but the origin of the silver myth is uncertain.
Mirrors are also stem from religious superstition. Mirrors are supposed to be the reflection of the soul; pure mirrors, backed in silver. Vampires have no soul.
Why bells? Why poppy seeds? Well, demons of all sort had an aversion to the ringing of bells. The sound of bells was loathsome to evil spirits, and so vampires are equally repelled. Poppy seeds, or any sort of small seeds, or anything of that sort, were useful, according to myth, because vampires would have to stop and count every single seed before they could continue. And the hope would be that the vampire would get stuck counting seeds and not notice the time, and then the sun would rise and destroy the creature.

Why Do Vampires Hate Garlic?

Moonlight — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:00:33 +0000

We have all heard the myth before, that vampire can’t stand garlic whatsoever. To use garlic on a vampire would make them run away in disgust. It’s a classic method of protection and an item that any sane vampire hunter has on them. But where in the world did that legend come from? Out of all the herbs why is it the pungent garlic that does the trick? Well let me full you in on where this old legend comes from.

Garlic originally got its good reputation from ancient Egypt. Back then it was believed that garlic held incredible healing powers. From Egypt it spread and developed more uses and powers. It was known not only for healing but also protection against the plague and supernatural evils. In southern Slavic regions in was used to protect oneself from demonic forces, witches and sorcerers. The Christian St. Andrew was said to be the donor of garlic to humanity.

Garlic used against vampire was big in southern Slavic countries and Romania as well. It was used to find vampires and to prevent vampires. A vampire in hiding could be spotted by not being willing to eat garlic. In the 1970s , a Romanian church distributed garlic during service, observing those who refused to eat it and figuring out if the person was a vampire. Crazy that this happened only 30 or so years ago right?

To prevent someone from being turned into a vampire it was common to stuff cloves of garlic in the corpse’s nose, mouth and ears to keep out all evil. It was also smeared over the eyes. Also, once they killed a vampire and cut off its head they would then fill its mouth with garlic to keep it from returning.

It wasn’t just the Slavic areas that used garlic. In China and Malaysia it was rubbed on children’s foreheads to prevent vampire attack. In the Philippines it was rubbed under the armpits. Damn, can you imagine how badly they smelled? And of course many countries simply hung garlic from their doors to ward off vamps.

When it comes to vampires and garlic now, most authors choose to have their vampire characters unaffected by garlic. But in some books/movies vampires don’t like garlic, but it is simply because they have a heightened sense of smell and the stuff reeks. One author that did use garlic as protection was the famous Bram Stoker in Dracula. That there is how vampires and garlic became so popular and well known.

I’ll end this post with a quote from Dracula, the scene in which Van Helsing protects Lucy from the Count by placing garlic around her…

We went into the room, taking the [garlic] with us. The Professor’s actions were certainly odd and not to be found in any pharmacopeia that I ever heard of. First he fastened up the windows and latched them securely. Next, taking a handful of the flowers, he rubbed them all over the sashes, as though to ensure that every whiff of air that might get in would be laden with the garlic smell. Then with the wisp he rubbed all over the jamb of the door, above, below, and at each side, and round the fireplace in the same way.
It all seemed grotesque to me, and presently I said, “Well, Professor, I know you always have a reason for what you do, but this certainly puzzles me. It is well we have no sceptic here, or he would say that you were working some spell to keep out an evil spirit.”“Perhaps I am!” He answered quietly as he began to make the wreath which Lucy was to wear round her neck.

- Moonlight

How to Kill or Defend Against Vampires

veritas — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:29:38 +0000

As long as there have been legends of vampires, there have been methods by which to either kill them, or protect oneself and family from them. Before there was Christianity, however, there was still legends of vampires; what then of the use of holy symbols and idols to stave off the visits of a hungry undead individual? Before Christianity it was believed among the Balkans, Slavs, and other cultures indigenous to Europe that vampires were practically obsessive compulsive in their need for order. Some ways to deter vampires would be hanging a tangled net on a gatepost, or sprinkling tiny seeds, or grain outside the doorway. It was believed that the vampire would become so busy counting the seeds of untangling the net, that he’d forget his pray and become fixed on completing his or her task.

Other non-religious ways to fend off vampires is of course, garlic; either wearing it, or spraying a thin mist mixed with water in the air, keeping it near for the scent, over doorways, etc. Keeping holly placed around the house is another technique, as is also keeping a log of juniper in a home. Ringing bells are even said to keep vampires away, as well as placing mirrors around a home or on doors, and also crossing over running water. Holy water, the consecrated sacrament, crosses, eating blood bread, drinking blood brandy, or even burying wine nearby are also supposed to be protection against vampires.

Killing a vampire was accomplished by touching lead items to the gravestone of the walking corpse, beheading it, and/or hammering a stake through its heart. Cremating a vampire is also a surefire way to kill it, or piercing it with a blessed sword. Some Asian beliefs dictate that one can trap a vampire in its grave by sprinkling red peas, rice, roses, garlic, stones over where the body would lay in its grave. Others believe that immersing the vampire’s body in water will destroy it. Dhampirs, -the children of a vampire and human union, –are believed to have the ability to cast out a vampire, by simply commanding it, as well as having the ability to see them when they’re invisible.

Vampires » garlic

Safety from Vampires!

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Why Do Vampires Hate Garlic?

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