E. A. Koetting - staticfly.net

CHAPTER ELEVEN
BLOOD RITUAL
and urban legend is a reality that lies in wait for the ascending Black
Master.
TH E VAMPI R.E
Of all the myths surrounding blood and its use in the Works of
Darkness, those im'olving vampires have become the most infamous,
as well as the most glamorized. No longer are the creatures of the night
seen as undead pawns driven by an uncontrollable instinct and an
unconscious service to the Prinee of Darkness, but now are shown as
well groomed gentlemen in Armani and Versace, feeding on those that
they would otherwise court, and philosophizing the life out of their
undeath. The chupacabra of South America or the Akhkharu of Sumer
ha\'e been all but forgotten, replaced by Lestat and Vlad DracuL The
seething reality of vampirism as an occult art has been overlooked as
well, the attention stolen away by dissocialized teens, roleplaying
games, and a subculture that indulges in the appearance of an evil
that most have never even touched.
Several forms of vampirism are prevalent in our modern
Babylon, from a financial obligation that sucks the life out of a
hardworking family to a religion that demands the drainage of the
parishioners' blood and souls into the golden cup. Only two types of
vampirism deal directly with the Works of Darkness, however, and
without these two, dark immortality may never be attained.
The most easily recognized forms of vampirism are those basic
practices of the sanguine vampire, or the vampire who uses physical
blood as a means to power. If, as is posited throughout religion and
mythology, the blood truly is the life, it is this mysterious component
that makes the fluid so valuable to the Black Magician, who seeks power
over life. The blood of its own accord has no virtue save for its direct
linkage to the Eternal being that is the greater identity of man. The
blood, then, is only a necessary medium, a base substance, for that
whieh is insubstantial yet criticaL
Although the sanguine vampire almost invariably claims that
his vampiric nature has been such since birth, an initiation into the
practice is established at some specific point. Like budding sexuality,
interest is gained in the practice, material concerning the subject is
sought out, often becoming more graphic and descript with time, and a
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