In Search of Dracula: The Enthralling History of Dracula and Vampires (Raymond T. McNally & Radu Florescu, London: Robson Books, 1995, revised edition) is a book that will be familiar to many vampire fans: apart from being a 'classic' that established a sober and wide-ranging tradition of cultural analysis, it was the first book to link Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), the notorious ruler of Romania between 1456-62.

Featuring new information, the book is a response to previous critical reaction that Stoker's working notes featured little detailed information on Walachian history or Tepes him, hence the link between Stoker's Dracula and Tepes was tenuous at best. McNally and Florescu discuss Stoker's research methods and sources on Romanian history (taken from old books in the British Museum Reading Room), notably Emily de Laszkowska Gerard's Land Beyond the Forest (1888), which discusses Romanian superstitions, and William Wilkinson's An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, with Various Political Observations Relative to Them (1820), Stoker's primary source on the historical Vlad Tepes. The 1984 discovery of Stoker's original manuscript and corrections has only deepened the controversy over the McNally/Florescu model, which they confront in a chapter dealing with Stoker and the writing of Dracula. Like many historical texts, this book will not be immune from the propagandistic 'pro'-and-'con' debates that frequently engulf 'historical revisionist' literature on any subject.

The text's strengths lie in an unparalleled biographical study of the historical Vlad Tepes, and the subsequent folklore that surrounded his legendary reign of terror and cruelty. Along with extensive maps, photographs, geneologies, and chronologies, the revised text features newly uncovered information about Vlad Tepes' bloody crusades against Turkish infidels, and his imprisonment from 1462 until his assassination in November 1476. There is an enigmatic chapter on recent excavations of Tepes' empty Snagov Monastery grave, near Bucharest. Whether or not you endorse the claim that Stoker's Dracula was a conscious Remanifestation of Vlad Tepes, the chapters on the disinformation and 'psychological operations' ('psyops') stories surrounding his fifteenth century reign, and the collection of orally transmitted Romanian, German, and Russian vampire folklore are a case study themselves in the use of culturally applied memetics ('thought contagions') within predefined proxemic regions, cultural matrices, and host populations. The folklore collection represent elements of Slavic and Eastern European folklore that influenced the Romantics, who retransmitted the vampire archetype to Western society in the 19th century.

That pre-existing 'thought contagions' are not only tapped for artistic/cultural use (Stoker et. al), but also for politically expedient motives is clearly shown by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's attempts to hijack the Vlad Tepes history, portraying him as a patriot. McNally and Florescu detail Ceausescu attempted to move Romania's capitol city from Bucharest to Tirgoviste, Dracula's capital in the fifteenth century, and the widespread historical revisionism propogated by Communist Party historians in 1976, the five hundred year anniversary of Vlad Tepes' assassination. The authors chronicle Ceausescu's escape attempt on December 22, 1989, which led to his capture near Tirgoviste, and his execution by army officers (pp5-6). The fate of identifying too much with an historical figure/archetype is harrowingly conveyed.

Ultimately the McNally/Florescu text is an exciting and enigmatic historical adventure, unearthing as many questions as it 'solves'. More importantly, it offers readers a glimpse of the source of the vampire archetype which underpins the modern media driven 'horror industry' (the book features a detailed, if relatively mainstream, analysis of the archetype in films, theatre, and print), the non-Western source in its undefiled purity of darkness. For those who would look beyond the immediate cultural manifestations of this archetype (in its psychological and anthropological aspects), even beyond Stoker's Dracula, this grimoire hints at largely untapped potential to reharness this archetype from its purest essence, and hence manifest a Dark Renaissance deeper than the currently existing and often shallow Goth/Pagan movements.

II.

Vampires: The Occult Truth (Konstantinos, St Paul MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1996) is typical of what passes for 'serious occultism' these days. The book can be divided into three sections, the first (and best, but that's not saying much!) are several lightweight 'strictly by numbers' chapters that deal with the folklore beliefs of ancient Mesopotamia, Iraq, India, Africa, Europe, and the Americas; with the usual historical sections on ‘Vlad Dracula’, Gilles de Rais, Elizabeth Bathory, and John Haigh.

The middle section titled 'Mortal Blood Drinkers of the Present Day' is unintentionally amusing: Konstantinos has collected (or has himself written) letters in response to ads that are indistinguishable from the self-deceitful fantasies of many goths who become enamoured with the vampire aesthetic. The most laughable are from a 'Vampyr Virgo' and a 'Dante', whose theories of 'Vampyrcraeft' stem directly from Anne Rice herself. Rather than rigorously analyse the words of 'A Possible Immortal?' to provide some psychological insight, Konstantinos' comments themselves reflect the disturbing lack of critical analysis skills within the wider occult community.

The final section unveils Konstantinos' 'occult truth' theories, which are strictly traditional: Dion Fortune's psychic defence mixed with liberal doses of 'second death' astral body teachings, with an uncredited Anton LaVey's 'psychic vampire' thrown in for good measure. The 'Purification' and 'Banishing' rituals are watered down, even by Golden Dawn or Pagan standards, while the 'Astral Body Programming' ritual attempts to capture the aura of John Lilly's 'metaprogramming' neuro-somatic models, and miserably fails. Considering the bibliography at his disposal, Konstantinos could have done a lot better; for instance he conspicuously fails to even mention the existence of modern organizations such as the Temple of Set's Order of the Vampyre (who are seriously exploring and applying the aesthetics and psychology of the vampyre archetype), described in Norene Dresser's American Vampires: Fans, Victims, Practitioners (New York NY: W.W. Norton & Co, 1989), a book on Konstantinos' list.