So I can suck all the blood from that fleshy pink skin.
Sorry about that. Silly moment, But does raise a serious question.
Was recently watching the first season of "Trueblood," when I noticed that while they choose to chose to mark several of the popular western traits and being myths, they did keep the one about a vampire having to be invited into ones home in order to be able to enter it. This got Me thinking about the origin of this mythical vampire trait in general. As much as a lot of the Mythical Western Vampire traits can been seen as outlandish, this one in particular seems a bit on impractical side. Purely speaking from a predatory point of view. As I am not sure that it exists in vampires from other cultural backgrounds, it leaves Me to wonder why the Western version. Could it stem from the Judeo/Christian idea of inviting evil into one's heart? Could it come from the relation of Vampires to devils and demons of Judeo/Christain mythos? The House representing the purity of one's heart?
What are your views?
I follow you Oni, it also restricts the monster. If it has any base in superstitions ideoisms, then it could offer security some.
As powerful as Lore makes monsters, there is often a harness that can restrain said power.
I would be intrested to find out in litirary history the concept first appeared, or if it was a screen play perhaps, and was Dracula not able to pass over running water in the book, or was that just inserted by later adaptations?
Well the difference in the show is that if the person whom invited you in , has the power to remove your welcome and banish you from re-entering the home.
It does raise an interesting question tho and it seems to me that, in a similiar way, that it's much like giving entities rights to come and go or remain in one's home or demanding them to leave.
I would say that fear of the unknown has much to do with it but really, who would we let into our homes except those we trust :)
dabbler - It honesty feels like a security blanket. As if faced the the possibilty of such a dangerous threat, that there has to be some limit to its power. No matter how illogical it may be.
It develops the vampires character as well, who wants to go to a movie, or watch a show that has a vampire walk in, and ravish the hero in their home. In the white wolf Genre a empasis is placed on a Vampires. It balences out the "fairness" factor.
it makes for a good writing gimmik to have the vampire have to weasel their way into a potential victims home. For those that get to intense with their make pretend, it helps them sleep at night.."Vampires are out there.."
"They can't get, in here.."
PsiDreamer - How often do we let people into our homes that we do not even know? Plumbers, Electricians, Police Officers, Mail Carriers?
dabbler - Even as a writting gimmick it seems abit out of place. A "get out of jail free" or "time out" card if you will.
Though it calls into question the quasi religious belief of Home and Hearth being only a little less sacred then the "Holy Ground" of churches. As if the "church was saying that here is the limits of its powers because "we" say so, and only through your belief in our belief will you be able to have this power over the "vampire" and even "all evil."
This Topic was already discussed in the past.
all of your answers should be found here
https://www.vampirerave.com/forum/message.php?message=35147&group=1&catid=1
I actually like the realistic style of Trueblood. It shows that even though the Westernized version has a bit of classical refereneces involved, does not mean that the classic is the modern. For instance, the vampire does not explode or burn to a crisp immediately, but crispies over time. Which seems like a better approach.
I am with you so far Oni.
I am just forging some tangents to add perspective.
Portals have a tradition of being garden in most cultures, even today we still see Gargoyals on buildings.
Having the simple power to reject a potential fiend
is crucial to any superstition.
I am still looking for Biblio reference to the origen of that concept.
it could be related to the Ghost, that animate the corpse, if the corpse attempts to pass, the ghost could well be blocked.. ghost (by tradition)can only haunt relative dwellings.
well I googled it and got this as a results LOl not sure if it is what your looking for as far as an answer goes yet, *some of it makes sense to me.
BitchFromHell, your second theory is most correct.
As intelligent as it may seem for most to look for recorded/documented information, it is simply illogical to ignore the understanding of how it all works while searching for an explanation that will fit within the logic of non-understanding.
An invitation is much more than spoken words. So any information that refers to just the spoken word is automatically false.
To give you all a better understanding of an invitation, I'll give an example.
Example 1:
Let's say you tell someone to come over to your place. You give them a time to show up. You expect them and wait for them but they never show. Then the next day that person says they were going to come over but as it was the last thought in their mind, they fell asleep and had an out of body experience in which they still made the visit. Then they start describing everything they heard and saw.
Example 2:
Let's say you know someone is trying to harm you. You lock all the doors and windows, and your defenses are up whenever any personal interaction is encountered. Then the person that is trying to harm you decides to try an out of body experience to spy on you. They cannot make the connection as long as you visualized your protective area which is also your energy field expanded to what you imagined being in the physical.
In fact, someone that always leaves their door unlocked has already made an open invitation.
If someone can take all the info I know and dig it up from hundreds of years ago, I'll be very impressed. Cause I'm certain the religions had all of the recorded information destroyed.
lol Oni...since ive been here for 6 or so years, none of those people have been into my home. The only one's that come into my home are those i know i can trust.
Thresholds often have blessings on (under) them that prevent harm from comming into the household. The practice of these sorts of protection is no longer common place. Being invited over the threshhold changes the condition from foe to friend for teh purpose of the magic.
In Arab countries, thresholds are painted blue, natives smudge, as wiccans sweep, and a plethor of other magics that keep "vampires" out.
well I feel just because my door is unlocked does not mean that you should walk in without announcement that is just rude and disrespectful all around in my opinion. but, hey to each their own.
i agree we leave are doors open and no one would dare just walk in that we dont know... it just goes unsaid.