When one creates phantoms for oneself, one puts vampires into the world, and one must nourish these children of a voluntary nightmare with one's blood, one's life, one's intelligence, and one's reason, without ever satisfying them.

Eliphas Levi

translated by Aleister Crowley

The series of Nightside Narratives by Kenneth Grant continues with a further two tales. The first, GAMALIEL: THE DIARY OF A VAMPIRE, presents the history of a woman, Vilma, who attempts to invoke unseen Intelligences but takes a wrong turn. She loses her way in the Gamaliel, the Qliphoth of Yesod, and eventually succumbs to vampiric possession. Her story unfolds as extracts from her Magical Diary, the editor of which makes a horrifying discovery as the Diary closes.

DANCE, DOLL, DANCE! is an account of Tantric Sorcery. It centres upon the fatal emanations of an idol, bequeathed to the narrator of the tale. It becomes clear from a sinister pattern of events that the idol thrives on blood and sexual rites. The narrator is enmeshed in a nefarious web of intrigue and allure and his energies are vampirised, culminating in a cat- aclysmic sexual rite based on the Dakshina Kalika Yantra.

These two tales, like the others in this series, illumine the darkly obsessive forces that are erupting in our midst with all the violence of profound and massive psychoses. But, as demonstrated by these disturbing documents, it is possible to control such influences and to direct them towards the exploration of little- known and creatively fertile regions of consciousness.