Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside. Brad Steiger

the Mage, translated by MacGregor Mathers from a manuscript written in French in the eighteenth century, is dated 1458 and claims to be translated originally from Hebrew. The text states that the universe is teeming with hordes of angels and demons that interact with human beings on many levels. Humans are somewhere between the angelic and the demonic intelligences on the spiritual scale, and each human entity has both a guardian angel and a malevolent demon hovering near him or her from birth until death.

      Venerable traditions state that such entities as Lilith and her spawn first manifested on Earth at a time when the gods were said to walk freely among humankind. To these godlike creatures of darkness, the primitive humans who regarded them with such awe and reverence were property, chattel from which to gain energy and sustenance.

      The apocryphal Book of Enoch tells of the order of angels called “Watchers,” or “The Sleepless Ones.” The leader of the Watchers was called Semjaza or Shemhazai (in other places, Azazel, the name of one of the Hebrews’ principal demons), who led 200 Watchers down to Earth to take wives from among the daughters of men. It was from such a union that the Nephilim were born. The Nephilim are said in the Old Testament to have been the progeny of the “sons of god,” whose union with Earth women produced “giants … men of great renown.” Although often translated as “giants,” the word Nephilim actually means “the fallen ones.”

      Since the Watchers manifested on Earth as angels, the Watchers were beings of spirit essence, rather than of flesh and blood. What these fallen ones invading Earth needed from humans was their blood and their flesh so that they might become corporeal beings. The Watchers and the Nephilim were the first real vampires to exploit humankind, and they continue today to feed on the life force of humans—both their blood and their spirit.

      Real vampires are those vulnerable humans who have been possessed by the spawn of ancient entities such as Lilith, the seductive fallen angel (illustration by Ricardo Pustanio).

      Once in physical bodies, the fallen angels taught their human wives to cast various spells and to practice the arts of enchantment. They imparted to the women the lore of plants and the properties of certain roots. Semjaza did not neglect human men, teaching them how to manufacture weapons and tools of destruction.

       Serpent Masters from Other Worlds

      In many ways, Semjaza is synonymous with the Serpent who tempted Eve and Adam with the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Nearly every known Earth culture has its legends of wise Serpent People who ruled the planet in prehistoric times and assisted humankind in rising in status from hairless apes to the lords of the planet. Many of these Serpent People were said to come from the sky to promulgate the beneficent and civilizing rule of the Sons of the Sun, or the Sons of Heaven, upon Earth. Quetzacoatl, the “feathered serpent” and culture-bearer of the Aztecs, was said to have descended from Heaven in a silver egg. Ciuacoatl, the Great Mother of the Gods for the ancient people of Mexico, was represented as a serpent woman. Among many African tribes, it is Aido Hwendo, the Rainbow Serpent, that supports the Earth.

      The Babylonian priest-historian Berossus chronicled the legend of Oannes, an entity described as a serpent-like half-man, half-fish, who surfaced from the Persian Gulf to instruct the early inhabitants of Mesopotamia in the arts of civilization. Before the advent of the serpent master Oannes, Berossus stated, the Sumerians were savages, living like the beasts with no order or rule.

      Like so many accounts of the Serpent People, Oannes appeared to be some kind of amphibious Master Teacher endowed with superior intelligence, but possessing an appearance that was frightening to behold. Oannes had the body of a fishlike serpent with humanlike feet and a head that combined the features of fish and human. Berossus explained that the creature walked about on land during the day, counseling and teaching the Sumerians, but returned to the ocean each evening. The amphibious master gave the once primitive Sumerians insight into letters and sciences and every kind of art. He taught them to construct houses, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the Earth and showed them how to harvest fruits. In short, Oannes instructed them in everything that could tend to soften the manners of and civilize humankind.

      The ancient texts tell of the Watchers, the Nephilim, the fallen ones who were the first real vampires to exploit humankind (illustration by Ricardo Pustanio).

      Because of the respect for the great Serpent Masters of prehistoric times, the serpent was regarded as both a symbol of immortality and of death in ancient Egypt, and the pharaoh wore a snake emblem on his headdress as a mark of royalty and divinity. Apollo, the Greek god of healing and medicine, was originally invoked and worshipped as a serpent. Aesculapius, another deity associated with medicine, often materialized as a serpent, and his crest of the double snakes remains today as a symbol of the medical profession: the caduceus.

      In the Hebrew account of the Fall from Paradise, the Serpent was the king of beasts, walking on two legs. The Serpent became jealous when he saw how the angels honored Adam. For his part in the seduction of Eve, the Serpent was punished by having his limbs removed and being forced to crawl on his belly. In the Muslim tradition, it is Archangel Michael who chops off the serpent’s limbs with the sword of God.

      In many Native American legends, the great hero Manabozho must battle many Serpent People to free his people from bondage. According to many tribal traditions, in the beginning of time humans and snakes could converse freely. It was believed that shamans and others who were powerfully attuned to the spirit level could still communicate with serpents and learn secrets about the future and powerful healing medicines.

      Snakes appear in the mythology and legends of cultures worldwide, including the familiar biblical tale of the Garden of Eden. Could this commonality among ancient civilizations be a clue about creatures visiting early mankind?

      Serpent People remain popular as shape-shifting entities in the local folklore of many areas around the world. Some cultures still believe that an underground race of reptilian beings secretly control all the major events of life on this planet. Certain UFO investigators have theorized that the Serpent People of prehistoric times are the same beings who today visit Earth in spaceships as Overlords surveying the evolution of humankind.

       Beware of Demons in Disguise

      The science of alchemy was introduced to the Western world at the beginning of the third century C.E. by Zosimus of Panapolis, a Greek-Egyptian alchemist and Gnostic mystic. Zosimus cited the familiar passage in Genesis as the origin of the arcane art: “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair.” To this scriptural reference, Zosimus echoed the Book of Enoch in stating the tradition that in reward for their favors, the “sons of God” endowed these women with the knowledge of how to make jewels, colorful garments, and perfumes with which to enhance their earthly charms.

      In the opinion of the clergy, the alchemists were being deceived by demons in disguise. Church Father Tertullian (c. 160–240 C.E.) argued that the “sons of God” referred to in Genesis were evil perverters of humans who bequeathed their wisdom to mortals with the sole intention of seducing them to mundane pleasures.

      Ignoring the warnings of the clergy, alchemists believed that they could also acquire control over the Elementals, the unseen intelligences who inhabit the four basic elements of the material plane. The creatures of the air are known as sylphs; of the earth, gnomes; of fire, salamanders; and of water, the nymphs or undines.

      According to ancient tradition, before the Fall, Adam had complete control over these entities. After the Fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden,