Foreword
The tantric/hermetic, Royal Rite of the Vampire can never be predatory or sexual. It does not indicate any form of Freudian psychosis and although it is an expression of True Love, this does not correspond to any mundane romantic expectations. Human Love seems mostly needy, arising in response to a variety of chemical and emotional deficits and rather than transforming the couple involved, it simply seems to reinforce old complexes and prejudices, being entered into in the hope of fulfilling preconceived expectations.
Starfire cannot be achieved by partial individuals seeking some form of socially conditioned notional completeness through the other person. Both individuals must have personal integrity in order to transcend the possibility of simply becoming each other’s other half. The whole realm of Starfire in its varying manifestations should be entered into without preconceptions and without emotional inadequacy.
If there isn’t a degree of prior individuation, then it does become just another variation on the theme of Freudian domination and the desire for personal power through the sexual victimization of another person. In itself Starfire is Death, the journey’s end. Its symbolic expression is best appreciated in Waite’s Two of Cups. It is a "Love which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is Sanctified". As the Rite of Quickening, it often happens at its greatest intensity when it is least expected to happen and the individual/s involved hate no foreknowledge of it.
The Endocrinal glands tend to be multi-functional, with more than just one gland being responsible for the production of a single hormone or neurotransmitter. The Endocrinal System is fantastically complex and operates on a feedback loop of constantly changing levels of hormones, interacting and affecting each other in order to maintain a delicate balance.
To attempt to give a full explanation of the Starfire Ritual in Anatomical and Physiological terms would require a book to be written, so I will restrict the discussion to those glands and organs directly associated with the psychosomatic Sephira system which stimulates the production of the hormones most closely identified with Starfire, the Holy Grail and Vampire Lore. Firstly however it is worth actually defining the objectives of undertaking the Rite of the Vampire.
These are:
1) To enhance intelligence
2) To promote longevity
Intelligence
Intelligence in cybernetic terms is defined as "The ability of an organism to exist and develop in symbiosis with its environment". The Rite of the Vampire was, in classical terms, a Royal prerogative which was undertaken on a regular basis with selected partners in order to promote within the reigning Queen or King a sequence of events leading to transcendent intelligence.
Originating in Scythian Royal Families the Rite of the Vampire enabled the Queen to maintain, and the King to obtain sovereignty, firstly over themselves, and secondly over the destiny which affected the people whom they served and guided. Whilst the Queen could reign independently, it was thought by the ancients that a King could not be a King without a Queen. In modern everyday terms this idea has a sound basis in the difference between male and female physiology, which difference in part is reflected in, and was balanced out by, the Rite of the Vampire.
In the ancient world the caste system defined the tasks of every individual within society. The Royal family was the nation’s spirit, soul and mind, the warriors were its arms, the yeomen and artisans were its torso and its legs. Each caste performed its specific tasks and each caste relied upon the other for direction, sustenance and defense. Each caste was considered as vital as the other, in the task of maintaining the nation as a whole. Today the nations are being run by the toe fat.
The task of the Royal Family was to guide and direct the efforts of the other castes and it could only do this efficiently if it was psychologically healthy and possessed of a considerable degree of wisdom and farsightedness. Its specific task was to foresee future problems and benefits and direct the nation accordingly.
To be able to exercise this amount of sovereign control over destiny, they first had to ensure sovereignty within themselves and this entailed adopting a practical, consistent method of integrating all the aspects of the psyche, by uniting and enhancing communication between the various areas of the brain contained within the general divisions of the left and right cerebral lobes. This task was not achieved by lengthy self analysis or psychotherapy but simply by ingesting chemicals which would encourage a greater sense of union within self and thus a transcendent appreciation of the self’s union with the Mind of Godhead or the Universe. Thereby true sovereignty, the will of the One, could be integrated into the mind of the royal seer and followed.
Within the mind are a host of barriers, many of which are caused by the brain’s chemical and physical inability to efficiently communicate with itself. This causes a sense of confusion and isolation which encourages various forms of attachment to comforting delusions. Sovereignty over self is attained by accepting the self for what it is. In so doing the individual, dispensing with the energy consuming need to erect and maintain defensive mental routines, allows the truth to prevail instead, without regret and without judgment. In this manner the mind becomes detached and observant.
The energy formally used to sustain defensive mechanisms and constellations of delusionary complexes is freed from its shackles and can he used to enhance alertness and perception. In focused attention there is discovered Truth and this is the greatest manifestation of intelligence. Symbiosis is - above all else - Harmony and Harmony is transcendence. As a result of the Rite of the Vampire, Scythian culture itself was rooted in the love of Truth and Honor. The Harmony they experienced within themselves as a result of their personal honesty affected their relationship with the natural world which they adored and correspondingly lived in harmony and symbiosis with. For the Scythian, who had an almost childlike love of life, dishonesty was the enemy of joy and the death of clarity.
In consequence it was said of the Scythian Royal caste that they hated usurers, merchants and tradesmen and abhorred the deceit of the marketplace. Above all, to a Royal Scythian, who knew transcendent reality, and in being able to read his or her own heart and mind, could read the hearts and minds of other men; anyone attempting to lie to them or deceive them was proffering the greatest of insults and appeared to be tuning the universe upside down and perverting the Harmony of the Natural Order of life itself.
In Gothic Romance we have a particularly apposite example of the Scythian hatred of liars and cheats. The Scythian "vampire" is portrayed therein as living in terror of the christian cross and holy water and so we are fooled into believing that the vampire was an evil denizen of Hell who cannot bear to look upon or come into contact with the greatest of all the symbols of virtue and righteousness. However the reverse is actually the case. Because of the intent of those who have stolen it, the christian cross to a "vampire" was the epitome of everything that is evil, malicious, self serving, deceitful, dishonest and corrupt. To the "vampire" the church were no better that spies, holy protection racketeers and murderers, they were tradesmen and usurpers.
The vampire’s reaction to the cross was not holy terror but disgust and contempt, which was compounded by insult if the cross were wielded by a cleric, because to the vampire the cross was also associated with the martyrdom of one of the Family. To use a Vampire Family symbol to ward off a Vampire was the ultimate insult to the vampire’s intelligence. Likewise with holy water. In the medieval romances dire warnings are issued to those who would pour water upon the cubic stone of the Holy Grail.
Such an act would bring down thunder and lightning on the head of the transgressor. This symbolism indicates that the stone that pours forth the waters of life, namely the Grail Maiden should not be baptized because such a christian act is an act of territorializing usurpation, which is viewed by the Dragon Bloodlines in much the same way as anyone else would view the dog that urinates up a tree.
Christian clerics are usurpers and the act of aspersing with holy water is taken as their arrogance and audacity in attempting to make their own, something they can never possess or use to further their own selfish materialistic desires. The Vampire Race didn’t live in fear of idolatrous trinkets, it viewed them with anger and contempt as a form of utter stupidity that insults the intellect.
To return to the central theme of the narrative, the achieving of internal union was a fairly straightforward and predictable event. This is because the Royal Scythians, the Vampire or Elven Kings and Queens originated from a bloodline that had specific physiological differences in comparison to to other human species. Principally, as stated, they were in possession of a greater number of Melatonin sensitive synaptic receptors on both sides of the brain than ordinary human beings.
Secondly they possessed also a greater number of axons uniting the right and left lobes of the brain via the corpus callosum. This allowed for an enhanced trans-lobal communication potential. Thirdly both male and female "vampires" had larger Pineal glands than other people. In Vampire culture these assertions are reflected in the symbolism they used.
The synaptic and axonal connections via the corpus callosum were represented by the image of the dove of the Holy Spirit descending, holding within its beak a paten which it intends inserting into a Grail Cup. This was a medieval Templar symbol. The wings of the dove represent the axon branches of the limbic system of the left and right cerebrum whilst the body of the dove represents the corpus callosum which joins the two halves together.
Similarly the Aryan symbol of the swan displayed also takes the trouble to emphasize the same assertion but rather uses the swan’s head to distinguish the position of the Pineal gland. Both birds are used to convey a sense of grace and serenity and the observer is encouraged to associate such states with the psychic condition of the Dragon Grail Bloodline, arising specifically from neurophysiologic differences between that bloodline and the rest of humanity.
Differences in sensitivity to psychic or physical stimulus between the ancient Scythian Royal caste and other castes is emphasized in the west by the Tale of the Princess and the Pea. This story has a variant in Hinduism which itself shares a common Aryan cultural root with the Scythians. Here the difference between a Brahmin and a Ksatriya attracts comment and it becomes clear that a tendency toward heightened physical sensitivity distinguishes the Royal Priest from the Noble Warrior. One is quite clearly encouraged to associate caste difference with physical difference and conclude that caste was not a matter of social status but of physical and psychological function. The Priest was bred to be physically different to the Warrior.
The "vampire" was born with a higher potential for perception, transcendence and intelligence. Although operating on a higher base line in these areas than other species, the vampire race in their own perception of their everyday psychological and physiological condition, occupied a functional norm and walked a thin tightrope between their own mundanity, which for others would be perceived as being transcendent, and an even higher state of being.
Because of the neurophysiologic variations, achieving such a state would be quite a straightforward matter of ingesting certain neurotransmitters and hormones within the correct environmental conditions. Having so many more synapses and axons to accommodate these chemicals than other human beings, just a slight push could send them over the edge of their accepted reality and into another level of the universe.
A homoeopathic dose would allow them to achieve critical mass, whilst in others, much larger doses would have no affect at all because there are not the number of axons connecting the two lobes anyway. A simple example of this odd phenomena is that many devotees of various faiths follow gurus, attend seminars and retreats or take drugs and still, after years of struggle, yearning and discipline, get nowhere near attaining any state of mind that might be termed transcendent or intelligent according to the parameters defined herein.
Society encourages us to believe that we are all a homogenous mean, we are all built the same and we all share equal and similar attributes and potentials. The Church in particular is still very keen to push this particular piece of propaganda. This of course is blatantly untrue but those who are unaware of the physiological differences may strive for years in a state of utter perplexity, attempting to fulfill the desire to become enlightened.
Such perplexity is compounded when they meet others who make no attempt at all to achieve such a coveted state but simply live in it daily, having been born to it. Transcendence isn’t a matter of getting a load of exercises right, it’s a matter of being born with the kind of brain, endocrinal system and genetic memory that allows the mind to perceive such a state of being.
Being a witch, a magician, a vampire, a fairy or a royal dragon is not something that can be bestowed through rites of initiation or by adopting the pose. Such beings are of a different race, a race into which they are born. It is not a club that people can join and there are no human equivalents or substitutes, even though the church has attempted to usurp the status and power of these beings, the utter mess they have made of life on Earth just goes to prove my point.
They have usurped the positions formerly occupied by the transcendent and, lacking both the tools to perform the task and the inate desire to accept the ’Oblige’ which goes with the ’Noblesse’, they have stupidly and callously raped the planet and wiped out thousands of its precious species, bringing the world itself to the brink of disaster. The "vampire" was bred, with man’s collusion, to be man’s natural overlord and was born with that transcendent potential which was an essential part of the employment requirement for Kings and Queens.
Longevity
This aspect of the Rite of the Vampire has two subtexts, the physical and the spiritual. The former in social terms was intended to establish a sense of continuity and consistency to the reign of a King or Queen. The latter is determined by the phenomena of transcendent understanding. By performing the Rite of Starfire regularly it was possible to extend the normal span of life up to about one third and though the legend of the Vampire having eternal life can be said to be true, it does not relate to physical life. The Vampire is to all intents and purposes Dead in one sense but far more alive than ordinary human beings in another.
There are two types of life, both depend upon ones state of perception for their true appreciation. In Stoker’s ’Dracula’ we are introduced to the idea that Dracula’s image is not reflected in any mirror. Later on, towards the end of the Tale the Count says to Mina Harker "There is no Life in this body". The former incident explains the latter statement.
It is expressed eloquently elsewhere - "Be dead to the old nature and alive to the new". Jesus taught that there were two types of life, one mundane and the other transcendent. the old nature, the old life, is lived in relation to its environment and the opinion of those around it. It is bound by taboo and morality and considers itself the only reality.
This is the Ego, the individual, unregenerate Personality. Being a component of the Brain’s function, it dies with the body. The Ego or personality is a safety function, a minor form of self awareness that is formed by memory. In a sense, like memory it is a quality of the past and in its functioning it relates all new experience to past memory in order to quantify the threat or potential of any newly experienced phenomena.
In so doing it does not observe the new but makes of it the old, by comparing it to the nearest similar previous experience. Therefore as the ego is essentially memory and memory is the past and the past is dead and gone, so too is the human personality. Human beings are to all intents and purposes machines and they are truly the living dead.
The ego or personality, all that a human being thinks of within themselves as being alive, is founded upon fear. During the process of quickening the transcending mind, fear begins to appreciate that it is beginning to disintegrate. It is dying.
As it dies the fear that it is dies also and the memory which formerly prevented the perception from seeing anything new, suddenly sees all things anew. As memory is also the principal component of time, then what the perception also observes for the first time is the end of time: Eternity. What is left after the mind dies is the Eternal, the greater being, the spirit of the Universe: Life Itself
From that point onwards memory is founded not on fear but upon understanding. What lives from then onwards is the eternal perceiving itself through the senses of the vampire. The former "personality" is dead and in terms that human beings would understand "There is no life in this body", no fixed or immutable point of reference. This was why Dracula cast no reflection in the mirror. The face, the body, is what human beings think of when they affirm to themselves their selfhood and, being shaped by the personality, the body becomes the ego, the I.
The symbolic absence of a reflection is intended to assert that Dracula, and "vampires" in general, are "dead to the old nature but alive to the new". This is the foundation upon which Jesus’ entire message was built. It is only the Vampire that can truly say, with the voice of the eternal- "I AM THE TRUTH, THE WAY AND THE LIFE". For it is only in the blood of the vampire that there can be found the secret of Eternal Life.
Did vampires have eternal life? Well, yes they did. They were born Eternal in the sense that they were born to be transcendent and their Rites afforded them the ability to "yield" to the transcendent dynamic and perceive eternity. From that point on time becomes less relevant and they never departed from the eternal now that is perceived whilst in this physical life.
Time is created by mind which is fear. Without fear there is no time and whilst living in the physical body they perceive their mortal lives as immortal. So in the time it takes for a mortal to live out his natural life, the Vampire has already lived an eternity in the same space of years. When a Vampire body dies, the Spirit lives on because it is the spirit of the eternal.
The greatest heresy of all for the church is that they cannot ever achieve for themselves or bestow upon others the ability to attain life after death. The greatest heresy is that humans die, whilst the vampire and the fairy live forever. The greatest lie that the Church has ever uttered is in trying to convince people that faith or transubstantiation in communion will grant eternal life.
Even if the blood in the Eucharist Chalice were the blood of Christ or the Virgin, it would avail Man nothing because he is not anatomically equipped to process the chemicals that allow the brain to see the eternal. Mortal man is equipped to live his allotted span and then die forever. Individual reincarnation of the personality is equally as spurious a lie which, like the Church’s teachings concerning life after death, is propagated to induce behavioral conformity. However, there are still Grail Maidens on the Earth and the spirit of Kali has not yet completely passed into oblivion, despite the best efforts of the Church to breed her handmaidens out of existence.
The author discussed with Kenneth Grant the understanding that there is still a genetic difference between the Dragon Blood and the Blood of the Kasatriya and Sudra Castes. There is no elitism or snobbery involved in such a view. In times past there was a social niche for Dragons, Fairies, Vampires, Witches and Druidhes where, along with their human cousins they fulfilled a responsible social role in the affairs of Man.
However today they are just viewed as madmen or anomalies and society has no time for people who believe they can see beyond the endless desire to attain self worth or a sense of personal identity through fruitless labour and pointless consumption. Often the Quickening and Starfire does come unexpectedly and when it does, nothing can prepare the individual for its consequences. We are all taught that there is nothing beyond the reality defined within the consensus of the prevailing mass psychosis, with its materialistic fantasies and childish notions of Heaven and Hell.
We are all encouraged to conform and we have our expectations regulated accordingly. In particular no one in the west is taught that there is a dynamic potential within human relationships which transcends the mundane desire to assuage loneliness or greed, to propagate the genes, replicate the self or achieve self worth through sexuality. In consequence, for those who have been taught that there is no such things as Dragons, Vampires, Witches, Fairies or Druidhes and furthermore that all are sons of Adam and thus born equal in the sight of God, it can come as a bit of a surprise if Starfire, as the Quickening, creeps up unawares and does something to the soul that has remarkable similarities to it having been hung, drawn and quartered.
A new reality manifests itself, the brain becomes sensitized to the chemical phenomena that accompanies the revolution in perception and this new state becomes the norm, the base line. To maintain it Starfire as a ritual must be continued. There is now a new physiological requirement that must be met that is beyond human understanding, because human beings are blessedly bereft of the dormant brain tackle that has now fully kicked in and has become addicted to La Fontaine de Soif.
It should be explained that Starfire does not necessarily have to be the consumption of blood in the first instance. As the Quickening it can sometimes occur in the Grail Bloodline spontaneously and unexpectedly, and involve the subject in a situation where they become aware of a tremendous level of energy in someone they meet and become close to and this energy field, in close proximity, does something to the subject’s perceptions. There can be a feeling of tremendous stillness and peace and a cessation of desire. It is like Death.
The only way to explain it is to say that it appears to rewire the brain which then subconsciously expects a continuity of that self same stimulus. Without a regular fix there can be problems. It all sounds like the twaddle we read in Gothic Novels, like some form of stereotypical motif that Vampire wannabees would use to justify the idiocy of being seen in public with orthodontic augmentations.
However the Fontaine de Soif does exist and, as I have said before, the best way of appreciating it is to think of the alcoholic who, before the first drink doesn’t know that they even are alcoholics, but afterwards need that chemical fix regularly or their life goes to pieces. In alcoholism the chemical deficiency is, I believe, for a neurotransmitter called Neuropeptide. In vampirism it is for Melatonin but that in itself is only one component. Prolactin, Oxytocin, Vassopresin and Dopamine could also be implicated in the dependence.
A happy Dragon can go through life without any of this and without any of the Gothic overtones, just as long as they never meet another one of their bloodline. If they do though, there is a chance that they will discover a separate reality which they will find painful to be bereft of.
When talking of royal vampirism one should be aiming to associate the phrase with the evening scent of Nightstock, with moonlight and star shine and the song of the Nightingale in the forest behind the rose-walk.
"In the centre of the chamomile lawn there stands a black marble plinth from beneath which trickles the waters of life, whose sparkling melody harmonizes with the plaintive haunting song of the beautiful, elven girl, the beloved who, leaning against the monolith, stares into the starlit western sky, as if surveying a vast abyss, a realm of infinite depth that no man could ever hope to see with human eyes".
She is the journey’s end and the fulfillment of the dragon nature. Royal vampirism is about devotion to the feminine and surrender to the goddess, it is about a love that sacrifices self even unto death. It cannot be presented without the kind of romantic imagery whose symbolism transcends mortal love. Here we have a situation where the sidhe, in order to consummate his or her nature, must sacrifice that nature to the source of its consummation. The Dragon Maiden is not the victim and the vampire is not the predator. Both consume and transform each other and ultimately the sidhe must die in the arms of the beloved.
The confusion between this imagery and that of the dentally gifted fashion victim is the confusion between royal and martial vampirism. This particular manifestation of the legend was real and there is no getting away from that. Like royal vampirism it concerned itself with the assimilation of identities but beyond that it was for adrenaline junkies and thyroxine freaks. Originating in Scythian battle custom, warriors would drink the blood of fallen friend or foe alike in order to take upon themselves the valor and spirit of the dying warrior.
The more adrenaline and endorphins the victim or donor had in their bloodstream the better, because this provided fuel for the predators to continue the fray. It did not concern itself with high philosophy, transcendent love, intelligence or longevity and was itself in effect a short cut to the grave. A case of live hard, die young. Today athletes have been known to gradually extract their own blood, up to about two pints, and store it prior to events. Several hours before their performance they would reinject the blood back into their systems, giving them a significant and very useful buzz.
In stories such as le Fanu’s ’Carmilla’, Stoker’s ’Dracula ’and lately the work of Warrington, the most significant component of the vampire’s personality is not the callousness or predation, but their adoration and love for the victim. The method of consummation however, has been confused with that of the Scythian Warrior. Having said that, the stories themselves echo significantly the sentiments expressed in the world’s first story of royal vampirism, the Song of Songs, to be given further consideration in relating and expanding upon the underlying theme in historical examples of the Royal Rite.
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