Seven Deadly Sin: Lust Second Edition

To Recap:

Lust or lechery (carnal "luxuria") is an emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body. It is usually thought of as excessive sexual wants, however the word was originally a general term for desire. Lust can take any form such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power. Therefore lust could involve the intense desire of money, fame, or power as well. Lust is a powerful psychological force producing intense wanting for an object, or circumstance fulfilling the emotion. Many religions separate the definition of passion and lust by further categorizing lust as type of passion for something that does not belong to oneself. A great example of lust is the daring and dangerous vampire.

Vampire. The word conjures up images of suave, handsome, or strikingly beautiful creatures, such as is depicted in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Those of you who are fans of her books are quite familiar with the arrogant and sexy Lestat.
One of the most famous vampires of all time is, of course, Count Dracula. The brain child of Bram Stoker who based his immortal monster on the blood thirsty ruler know as Vlad Tepes, also know as Vlad Dracula, which when translated means "son of the dragon", a nicknamed that was well earned, for the count was a blood thirsty and ruthless ruler.
He was also known as Vlad the Impaler due to his habit of impaling people on very sharp stakes and letting them suffer until they died a horrible and extremely painful death. The legends of vampires were around long before Stoker wrote his book. For example Courtness Elizabeth Báthory
Elizabeth Báthory is one of the most prolific serial killers in all of history. “Elizabeth” Erzebet Báthory was so much more than some vain bitch who killed over 650 women, she was a vain bitch who could speak and write more than two languages, in a time where a woman writing one was unheard of. She was raised mostly by her very infamous openly bisexual aunt, and was a torturer and a murderer before she was 14 (according to local rumors.)

From very early times there have been reports and tales of vampires, or vampyr, which means, when roughly translated, "blood drinker".
Vampires have many characteristics that vary from each vampire depending on where they came from.  Here are some of the characteristics:

• They need blood to survive because it is the elixir of life, without blood they will die. The blood gives them energy, power and replenishes their body.  It is the key to immortality 
• They only come out at night because they fear sunlight. 
• They grow stronger, tempering with time.
• In folklore, it is not mentioned that vampires have fangs.
• They have the ability to shapeshift
• They have the power to control animals(the animals that they can change into).
• They live in their graves during the day and rise during the night at in ancient times
• They have no reflections, so when they look in the mirror they don't see anything
• Vampires die if they have been staked through the heart by wood, burned or by decapitation and removing the brain.
  
• They do have an immerse sex drive
• Religious symbols do not harm folklore vampires unless a person has tremendous faith behind it.
• When vampires drink the blood of a person that person will turn into a vampire.
• When a person dies violently, committed suicide or was wrongly accused and killed, he or she may become a vampire.

Although many seem to associate vampires with the fictional character of Dracula, males actually seem to be a minority in the global reports of these creatures. Female entities make up approximately eighty percent of all vampire legends worldwide. This causes a discontinuity between the vampire of fiction and the vampire of mythology. While the fictional night stalking vampires are often considered romantic, womanizing playboys; the mythological creatures are predominantly vengeful and angry females who feed on the blood of children punished by the gods.
The real vampires?
They lead everyday lives, hold respectable positions, and have the same desires, passions, and goals as normal people in the communities. Majority of vampires do not publicly flaunt the truth about themselves. They do not dress in Goth fashion or paint their faces white.

The true vampire does not live in an old rat infested castle or sleep in a coffin. Vampires exist in every area of every society. From lower class housing projects to penthouse apartments. They are in the city, and in the country. Anywhere that you would expect to find anyone, you can expect to find a vampire.
They do not all ingest blood nor do they all need to do so. Some of the vampires  are psychic vampires and often are outright repulsed by the thought of drinking blood. Even the vampires who do drink blood do not go out stalking human prey and draining their bodies. There are a number of ways to safely and legally acquire blood, and the real vampire seems to prefer these methods.

 In closing, the interesting thing to note is that although the creatures of mythology largely contradict the popular view of vampires, they do exist. They exist at all corners of the world and in nearly every culture known to man. Although they exist as superstition and folklore, they persist in appearing in the dark shadows of humanity. Often times, those things we consider mythology, have, in some small way, a foundation of truth to them. One of the purposes of my research is to find the origin of the myths to try to ascertain whether or not any truth ever did exist in them during the long forgotten history of man.