I don’t think I have ever met someone who have never dreamed about vampires. And actually vampires is one of the common oldest fears in humanity, an archetypical fear, which origins comes from old tales and folklore, not least from Europe where the legendary prince Vlad ruled Transylvania. He was a cruel one, putting his enemies' heads on poles. But the vampire theme stems from longer back in mythology, from when the very first woman Lilith, was accused of sucking blood from infants – among other hideous things. So there’s both cruelty and bloodthirst connected to vampires – and thereby fear.
The first movie I saw on the vampire theme was Dracula; an old black and white film, filled with shadows and lurking danger. I watched it with my mom on a small tv during the summer holidays, and there and then the fear of vampires was born in my life. But what’s the use of being afraid of something that no one have ever met or seen in real life? Why waste time on losing our senses over some undead creature with fangs? Well there is the tempting unknown, the tickling feeling of the dark. Of course.
The 21:th century’s vampires have though transformed into being more sexy than scary – just look at The Twilight saga and vampire Diaries - and I prefer to think that’s form of a common therapeutic thing for humanity. Obviously there are film-producers too who turn these shadow creatures into some mixture of drug and sex addicts and biker gang - personalities. And that’s typical for wanting to translate the unknown into something comprehensible. The most usual adapted symbolism though, when it comes to vampires, is energy vampires. People who steal others energy. And the concept has been accepted in a weird way, and being used in every situation where someone feels drained, and want to blame someone else - instead of taking a look on the own pattern. I don’t say it’s a fact that there aren’t individuals who need other persons energy to keep moving, but we have a choice to change the situation and that is done by - at first hand - looking at our own patterns.
Back to the vampire - vampire, the thirsty hunter in the dark. I don’t think I have ever met anyone who has never dreamed about that kind of scary vampires. And I would like to show you a typical dream on the theme, a dream filled with fear. This quite old dream belongs to a client of mine, who of course has said yes to letting me go public with it, and some of the work coming with it. The dream was a returning one, he couldn’t even remember when it first started and was really was disturbed by the dream. So here it is:
“I am running in a big old house where I am hunted by a vampire. I have been hunted here before too, but I don’t remember by who or what. I try to find places to hide, and I also try to prepare to defeat the vampire. I hide in a closet holding a wooden stake in my hand, with which I am planning to pierce the vampire's heart. I hear it outside the closet now, and I hold my breath, scared - and then the vampire opens the door, triumphantly, sure of its victory.“
What do we have here? The dreamer, the soul - is moving fast through an old mental construction, hunted by a really frightening and threatening aspect. This aspect of him, who he’s fleeing from, is to start with unknown, but he knows what it is. It’s a vampire. Something threatening his life. Or he THINK he knows what it is, because to most the vampire symbol is still - despite of the modernization of the vampire image - shrouded in darkness.
So, the soul is hunted – or is it haunted? - in this old mental construction; an old pattern of thoughts. He tries to find places to hide, and hiding inside a thought pattern means not being able to leave it, because of fear of facing it. See what it consists of. The dreamer is figuring out how to hide from, and how to handle the vampire aspect, in this old thoughtform. He has with him an object that in the myth, is used to kill vampires. He doesn’t know why he is there, why he is hunted and why by a vampire. And he only has others saying about what a vampire is.
Do you get it? The feeling of being chased by something threatening, something only familiar through others fears, is there. He didn’t know what he was running from but he was really afraid of it. This is a common theme in life. We run blindly when something is stressing us, without giving us the time to stop and ask ourselves what it is, and what it wants. But when working with this dream repeatedly in therapy sessions, my client started to slowly alter the dream by asking those questions.
In the end of the dream when the dreamer stood there holding his breath in the closet, and the vampire opened it – he always had woken up. Shivering in fear. But this changed one night. When he finally stood there face to face with the frightening hunter – he was stunned by the fact that the vampire was his best friend’s wife.
The understanding came to be that he was afraid of his thoughts where she was involved, his feelings for her symbolically put his life at stake – his head could easily be put on a pale if acting out, or even giving words to his interest of this woman, for given reasons. It was forbidden. And the scary vampire in his dream symbolized the risk of being shamed, alone and hated.
The therapy went on with looking at the thought pattern, the building, and the symbolism of both the friend, and the friends wife. What was it in her personality that he was attracted to, and why was he afraid to admit it even to himself? Why did he hide in the closet ready to impale her, instead of stop running and ask why the thought of her was hunting him?
Now, let’s look at the dream with new eyes.
“I am running in a big old house where I am hunted by a vampire” - interpreted as: “I am stuck in a large thought pattern of age where I am haunted by the thoughts of my friends wife.”
“I try to find places to hide, and I also try to prepare to defeat the vampire” - interpreted as: “I try not to think about her, and I also try to overcome her.”
“I hide in a closet holding a wooden stake in my hand with which I am planning to pierce the vampire's heart” - interpreted as: “In secret I want to get inside her heart, but I know that will hurt her.”
“I hear the vampire outside the closet and then it opens the door, and looks at me, sure of its victory” - interpreted as: “What I am running from triumphs over my attempts to stop thinking about it.”
My client was so disturbed by the fact that his feelings could cause trouble, that he was hiding from them. He actually wasn’t aware of them until the dream changed. And the fact that he secretly wanted her to fall in love with him, challenged his moral quite much.
The building – the thought pattern was old, and it really turned out that he had been in it before, since his mom had fallen in love with someone else when he was a boy, and left his father - and all the guilt, anger and forbidden love was stored in that huge and scary pattern. His parents emotional upheavals was just as scary to him as a vampire from the scariest old movies. And therefore when he seemingly did the same “not able to be forgiven thing” - falling in love with his friend’s wife, the vampire helpfully enough came along ready to play the bad and scary aspect.
So what happened? My client looked at his feelings, admitted them to himself and accepted them. When going through the work it turned out he wasn’t in love with her, rather he was trying to find a healing outlet for the pain he had been carrying inside him, since he was a boy. He had taken on his mother’s shame and guilt, since he was closest to her, and he was afraid of his father’s anger and grief. Released from his very secret love affair based on childhood trauma, he met a girl who he fell in love with. Lovely.
The vampire symbol turned out to be both forbidden and scary, in this case. Something threatening the life - as he knew it. So let’s move further on in the vampire jungle. Here’s another dream, and this one is mine, and it’s different than many on the same theme I had through the years:
“I am standing with my back towards north wearing my old turquoise trousers. On my right side is a light turquoise wall that is - at the same time - an ancient organism. At the same time I am watching the scene from the opposite side, standing with my back towards south. More entities are present and it’s time to see and accept. It’s kind of a judgement day, but without guilt. Quietly I am reasoning with myself, now being in the body with turquoise trousers, about the fact that I am actually a vampire. I can’t really understand how or in what way, since I don’t live or act like one. I get the understanding though, that it has to do with earlier incarnations, where I have lived in lineages where there also have been vampires. I decide to accept this without judging.”
Well.. what to do with this dream? Of course it has to be broken down into level one.
“I am standing with my back towards north." - meaning that I as in the dreamer and soul have my back towards north, which means - coming from, leaving or turning my back towards – my ancestors and their wisdom.
“I am wearing my old turquoise trousers" - could be seen as this: Trousers has two legs, hinting at duality, and thereby learning. Turquoise is both green and blue, which if thinking chakras, means heart and trout – learning about love and communication.”
“On my right side is a light turquoise wall, that is at the same time an ancient organism”.
Something as solid as a wall contains no duality, so here the love and communication is one. And not only that, the communication of love is alive – and it’s ancient.
When working with my dreams, I often feel so grateful and touch, because as it turns out, the subconscious has been speaking to me on behalf of the soul. Time after time. In the most essential and perfect symbolical language. The ancient living organism made of the art of expressing love – was the sacred space of my heart, and all of you who are familiar with Drunvalo Melchizedek’s wonderful teaching know what I am saying..
Years ago I started doing the Unity Breath meditation, and in time I also entered the sacred space of my heart, and in this space the walls were in a light turquoise colour. When wrapping my head around this vampire dream, so many years later, finding out that the scene of learning took place in the closeness of my heart, was just one of those moments when you really understand, how vast and unconditionally loving, the universal intelligence is. Well, back to the dream..
“At the same time (as I am standing with my back at the north) I am watching the scene from the opposite side, standing with my back towards south”
SO here there’s another watcher, the soul is watching it all from the opposite side, and when the first me have my back against north, the second me is looking towards north – which means the soul is looking BACK on the wisdom of the ancestors.
The dream continues:
“More entities are present and it’s time to see and accept. It’s kind of a judgement day, but without guilt.”
When looking back, it’s time to understand and learn. Without judging, and with the closeness to loving communication, the guilt is of no need. The entities are aspects of the soul. Gathered together in the closeness of the heart, ready to be forgiven by the self.
“Quietly I am reasoning with myself, now being in the body with turquoise trousers, about the fact that I am actually a vampire. I can’t really understand how or in what way, since I don’t live or act like one.”
The scene is showing the transforming self, the still dualistic self, coming to understanding about not judging oneself, and here comes the vampire theme!
The dualistically oriented self, who tries to move beyond judging oneself, has given itself quite a harsh judgement before. As a vampire. The horrible scary bloodsucker one. But it seems somehow incomprehensible in the presence of the heart, and this is the ancestor’s wisdom. Looking at oneself as a bad and sinful being is not possible when living in the heart.
I get the understanding though, that it has to do with earlier incarnations, where I have lived in lineages where there also have been vampires. I decide to accept this without judging. Earlier incarnations, earlier doings, errors and ongoing family patterns… when it comes to being able to transform, it always start with accepting. Then forgiving oneself, the family pattern and the mistakes being done in the past.
Being a vampire may then cover most everything that feels not accepted, things that one think must be hidden and subdued. And therefore accepting being a vampire even if not knowing how or under what circumstances, means accepting the fact that it’s impossible to be perfect in every way. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work with things we need to change, no - quite the opposite. We shall of course watch ourselves, from other angles than from inside our eyes, and seek to change the patterns which don’t serve us.
When it finally comes to that literal history of vampires, that’s quite a long story which has an even longer tail. But I think I just leave it here for today, but, look up your vampire dreams, and see with new eyes what the forbidden and scary creature is symbolizing, ask what it wants and come to terms with whatever the answer is. Then just take it from there and into your loving hearts.
Remember, you don’t have to be perfect to be loved.