Zombie

A zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) is an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore.

In modern times, the term "zombie" has been applied to an undead being in horror fiction, largely drawn from George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. They have appeared as plot devices in various books, films, video games and in television shows.

The word zombie is not used in Night of the Living Dead, but was applied later by fans. The monsters in the film and its sequels, as well as its many inspired works, are usually hungry for human flesh although Return of the Living Dead introduced the popular concept of zombies eating brains. Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story. Although this modern monster bears some superficial resemblance to the Haitian zombie tradition, its links to such folklore are unclear and many consider George A. Romero to be the progenitor of this creature. Zombie fiction is now a sizeable sub-genre of horror, usually describing a breakdown of civilization occurring when most of the population become flesh-eating zombies.

Cupid

In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido, meaning "desire") is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is often portrayed as the son of the goddess Venus, with a father rarely mentioned. His Greek counterpart is Eros. Cupid is also known in Latin as Amor ("Love"). The Amores (plural) or amorini in the later terminology of art history are the equivalent of the Greek Erotes.

Although Eros appears in Classical Greek art as a slender winged youth, during the Hellenistic period he was increasingly portrayed as a chubby boy. During this time, his iconography acquired the bow and arrow that remain a distinguishing attribute; a person, or even a deity, who is shot by Cupid's arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire. The Roman Cupid retains these characteristics, which continue in the depiction of multiple cupids in both Roman art and the later classical tradition of Western art.

Cupid's ability to compel love and desire plays an instigating role in several myths or literary scenarios. In Vergil's Aeneid, Cupid prompts Dido to fall in love with Aeneas, with tragic results. Ovid makes Cupid the patron of love poets. Cupid is a central character, however, in only the traditional tale of Cupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius.

Cupid was a continuously popular figure in the Middle Ages, when under Christian influence he often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love, and in the Renaissance, when a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings. In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day.

Wraith

Wraith is a Scottish dialectal word for "ghost", "spectre" or "apparition". It came to be used in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of "portent" or "omen". In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it was also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb wraith was the etymology favored by J.R.R Tolkien. Tolkien's use of the word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraits has influenced later usage in fantasy literature.

Leshy

The Leshy or Lesovik is a male woodland spirit in Slavic mythology who protects wild animals and forests. There are also leshachikha/leszachka (wives of the leshy) and leshonky (child of the leshy). He is roughly analogous to the Woodwose of Western Europe and the Basajaun of the Basque Country.


A leshy usually appears as a tall man, but he is able to change his size from that of a blade of grass to a very tall tree. He has hair and a beard made from living grass and vines, and is sometimes depicted with a tail, hooves, and horns. He has pale white skin that contrasts with his bright green eyes. A leshy has a close bond with the gray wolf, and is often seen in the company of bears as well. He is the Forest Lord and carries a club to express that he is the master of the wood. He has blue blood, which makes his cheeks the shade of blue. He has fiery green pop-out eyes. Legend describes him as having a red scard and his left shoe on his right foot. He also had no shadow. He was really big, but to hide from people in the forest he turned into dwarf-like creatures.

Leshy is the protector of all animals and birds in the forest. Mass migration of animals supposedly happens at leshy's instruction. He is said to have the ability to shapeshift into any form, animal or plant. When he is in human form, he looks like a common peasant, except that his eyes glow and his shoes are on backwards. In some tales, he appears to visitors as a large talking mushroom. He can also vary in size, shrinking himself to the height of a blade of grass when moving through open fields, or growing to the size of the tallest trees when in the forest.

If a person befriends a leshy, the latter will teach them the secrets of magic. Farmers and shepherds would make pacts with the leshy to protect their crops and sheep. The leshy has many tricks, including leading peasants astray, making them sick, or tickling them to death. They are also known to hide the axes of woodcutters. If a leshy crosses the path of a person in the woods, the person will get lost immediately. To find the way out, you have to turn your clothes inside out and wear shoes on opposite feet.

Leshies are terribly mischievous beings: they have horrible cries, and can imitate voices of people familiar to wanderers and lure them back to their caves, where the leshies will tickle them to death; they also remove signs from their posts. Leshies aren't evil: although they enjoy misguiding humans and kidnapping young women, they are also known to keep grazing cattle from wandering too far into the forests and getting lost. Sometimes cow herders will make pacts with a leshy by handing him their crosses from around their necks and sharing communion with him after Christian church gatherings; these pacts are said to give the cowherds special powers.

If more than one leshy inhabits a forest, they will fight for territorial rights. The evidence is in the fallen trees scattered about and scared animals.

Ghoul

A ghoul is a (folkloric) monster associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh, often classified as undead. The creature usually dwells in graveyards and cemeteries. The oldest surviving literature that mention ghouls is likely One Thousand and One Nights. The term was first attested to in English in 1786, in William Beckford's Orientalist novel Vathek, which describes the ghūl of Arabian folklore.

By extension, the word ghoul is also used derogatorily to refer to a person who delights in the macabre, or whose profession is linked directly to death, such as a gravedigger.

In ancient Arabian folklore, the ghūl (Arabic: literally demon) dwells in burial grounds and other uninhabited places. The ghul is a devilish type of jinn believed to be sired by Iblis.

A ghoul is a desert-dwelling shapeshifting demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures unwary people into the desert or abandoned places wastes to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, drinks blood, steals coins and eats the dead.

In the Arabic language, the female form is given as ghouleh and the plural is ghilan. In colloquial Arabic, the term is sometimes used to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual.

Siren

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous and devious creatures, portrayed as femmes fatales who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions, the literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa or Anthemusa, is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae. All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.

When the Sirens were given a name of their own they were considered the daughters of the river god Achelus, fathered upon Terpsichore, Melpomene, Sterope or Chthon. Although they lured mariners, for the Greeks the Sirens in their "meadow starred with flowers" were not sea deities. Roman writers linked the Sirens more closely to the sea, as daughters of Phorcys. Sirens are found in many Greek stories, particularly in Homer's The Iliad.

Their number is variously reported as between two and five. In the Odyssey, Homer says nothing of their origin or names, but gives the number of the Sirens as two. Later writers mention both their names and number: some state that there were three, Peisinoe, Aglaope and Thelxiepeia or Parthenope, Ligeia and Leucosia. Eustathius states that they were two, Aglaopheme and Thelxiepeia. Their individual names are variously rendered in the later sources as Thelxiepeia/Thelxiope/Thelxinoe, Molpe, Aglaophonos/Aglaope/Aglaopheme, Pisinoe/Peisinoë/Peisithoe, Parthenope, Ligeia, Leucosia, Raidne, and Teles.

The Sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as fully aquatic and mermaid-like; the fact that in Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Portuguese the word for mermaid is respectively Sirena, Sirène, Sirena, Syrena, Sirenă and Sereia, and that in biology the Sirenia comprise an order of fully aquatic mammals that includes the dugong and manatee, add to the visual confusion, so that Sirens are even represented as mermaids. However, "the sirens, though they sing to mariners, are not sea-maidens," Jane Ellen Harrison has cautioned; "they dwell on an island in a flowery meadow."

Grimoire

A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits and demons. In many cases the books themselves are also believed to be imbued with magical powers, though in many cultures other sacred texts that are not grimoires, such as the Bible, have also been believed to intrinsically have magical properties; in this manner while all books on magic could be thought of as grimoires, not all magical books could.

While the term grimoire is originally European, and many Europeans throughout history, particularly ceremonial magicians and cunning folk, have made use of grimoires, the historian Owen Davies noted that similar such books can be found all across the world, ranging from Jamica to Sumatra, and he also noted that the first such grimoires could be found not in Europe but in the Ancient Near East.

It is most commonly believed that the term grimoire originated from the Old French word grammaire, which had initially been used to refer to all books written in Latin. By the 18th century, the term had gained its now common usage in France, and had begun to be used to refer purely to books of magic, which Owen Davies presumed was because "many of them continued to circulate in Latin manuscripts". However, the term grimoire also later developed into a figure of speech amongst the French indicating something that was hard or even impossible to understand. It was only in the 19th century, with the increasing interest in occultism amongst the British following the publication of Francis Barrett's The Magus (1801), that the term entered the English language in reference to books of magic

Tiamat

In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a chaos monster, a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzu (the god of fresh water) to produce younger gods. It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is 'creatrix', through a "Sacred marriage" between salt and fresh water, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second "Chaoskampf" Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. Although there are no early precedents for it, some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon. In the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, she gives birth to the first generation of deities; she later makes war upon them and is killed by the storm-god Marduk. The heavens and the earth are formed from her divided body.

Tiamat was known as Thalattē (as a variant of thalassa, the Greek word for "sea") in the Hellenistic Babylonian Berossus first volume of universal history. It is thought that the name of Tiamat was dropped in secondary translations of the original religious texts because some Akkadian copyists of Enûma Elish substituted the ordinary word for "sea" for Tiamat, since the two names had become essentially the same, due to association.

Though Tiamat is often described by modern authors as a sea serpent or dragon, no ancient texts exist in which there is a clear association with those kinds of creatures, and the identification is debated. The Enuma Elish specifically states that Tiamat did give birth to dragons and serpents, but they are included among a larger and more general list of monsters including scorpion men and merpeople, none of which imply that any of the children resemble the mother or are even limited to aquatic creatures.

Buruburu

The Buruburu are Ghosts born of a person's fear after dying in a terrifying manner. They can then infect others with their fear, and this infection is known as the Ghost Sickness. The people they infect are usually people who have made a habit of terrorizing others. It is a spirit form that categorized and documented by the Japanese in the Edo period.  According to legend it attaches itself to its victim's spine and causes a chill to run down them, or in the worse case causes them to die of fright.

Rougarou

The Rougarou (alternately spelled as Roux-Ga-Roux, Rugaroo, or Rugaru), is a legendary creature in Laurentian French communities linked to European notions of the werewolf.

The stories of the creature known as a rougarou are as diverse as the spelling of its name, though they are all connected to francophone cultures through a common derived belief in the Loup-garou. Loup is French for wolf, and garou is a man who transforms into an animal.

Crocotta

The crocotta (or corocotta, crocuta, leucrocotta, or yena), is a mythical dog-wolf of India or Ethiopia, linked to the hyena and said to be a deadly enemy of men and dogs.

Pliny in his work Natural History; variously described the crocotta as a combination between dog and wolf or between hyena and lion. Of the hyena, Pliny writes that it "is popularly believed to be bisexual and to become male and female in alternate years, the female bearing offspring without any male," and that "among the shepherds’s homesteads it simulates human speech, and picks up the name of one of them so as to call him to come out of doors and tear him to pieces, and also that it imitates a person being sick, to attract the dogs so that it may attack them; that this animal alone digs up corpses; that a female is seldom caught; that its eyes have a thousand variations of color; moreover that when its shadow falls on dogs they are struck dumb; and that it has certain magic arts by which it causes every animal at which it gazes three times to stand rooted to the spot. When crossed with this race of animals the Ethiopian lioness gives birth to the corocotta, that mimics the voices of men and cattle in a similar way. It has a unbroken ridge of bone in each jaw, forming a continuous tooth without any gum.

Pliny also writes of another hyena-like creature, the leucrocotta, which he calls "the swiftest of all beasts, about the size of an ass, with a stag's haunches, a lion's neck, tail and breast, badger's head, cloven hoof, mouth opening right back to the ears, and ridges of bone in place of rows of teeth—this animal is reported to imitate the voices of human beings."

The Byzantine scholar Photius, epitomizing an ancient work by the Greek author Ctesias, writes: "In Ethiopia there is an animal called crocottas, vulgarly kynolykos [dog-wolf], of amazing strength. It is said to imitate the human voice, to call men by name at night, and to devour those who approach it. It is as brave as a lion, as swift as a horse, and as strong as a bull. It cannot be overcome by any weapon of steel."

Claudius Aelianus (aka Aelian) in his book On the Characteristics of Animals; specifically links the hyena and corocotta and mentions the creature's fabled ability to mimic human speech. Porphyry in his book On Abstinence from Animal Food; writes that "the Indian hyaena, which the natives call crocotta, speaks in a manner so human, and this without a teacher, as to go to houses, and call that person whom he knows he can easily vanquish."

The crocotta was reported to have appeared more than once in the Roman arena. According to the Augustan History; the emperor Antonius Pius presented a corocotta, probably at his decennalia in AD 148. The historian Cassius Dio credits the later emperor Septimius Severus with bringing the crocotta to Rome, saying this "Indian species...was then introduced into Rome for the first time, so far as I am aware. It has the color of a lioness and tiger combined, and the general appearance of those animals, as also of a dog and fox, curiously blended."

Later bestiaries of the Middle Ages confounded these various accounts, so that one finds the largely mythical creature given differing names and various characteristics, real and imaginary. Among the characteristics not found in the ancient sources was the idea that the eyes of a crocotta were striped gems that could give the possessor oracular powers when placed under the tongue.

Lilith

Lilith is a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy (1997) notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view of these demons. Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect". The two problematic sources are the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arslan Tash amulets.

The term Lilith occurs in Isaiah 34:14, either singular or plural according to variations in the earliest manuscripts, though in a list of animals. In the Dead Sea Scrolls Songs of Sage the term first occurs in a list of monsters. In Jewish magical inscriptions, on bowls and amulets from the 6th century CE onwards, Lilith is identified as a female demon and the first visual depictions appear.

In Jewish folklore, from the 8th–10th centuries Alphabet of Ben Sira onwards, Lilith becomes Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same earth as Adam. This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs. The legend was greatly developed during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism. In the 13th Century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, for example, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garde of Eden after she mated with arcangel Samael. The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.

Silene Capensis

Silene capensis is regarded by the Xhosa people as a sacred plant. Its root is traditionally used to induce vivid (and according to the Xhosa, prophetic) lucid dreams during the initiation process of shamans, classifying it a naturally occurring oneirogen similar to the more well-known dream herb Calea zacatechichi.

Known as African Dream Root or Ubulawu, this Silene Capensis plant is reportedly more effective than the better known Calea zacatechichi, often referred to as The Dream Herb. It has been used for countless years by a culture who believes ancestors are contacted through dreams, so they cultivate and seek out plants that enhance dreaming. This African Dream Root is one of the best-known in Africa.

Holden Nickar

According to legend, crossed Nickar Hold the air in December during the winter solstice, distributing blessings for his worshipers. In several Scandinavian myths (Julbock, Jultomten and Joulupukki), the god / spirit of December used to travel through his dominions riding a goat, while among the Teutonic, the bitches were sacred animals of the god Thor, who owned a carriage winged stretched by two informers, Lightning and Thunder.

Several of these pagan symbols as you can learn, were appropriated by Christianity and, through a process that lasted several centuries, attributed to another character, Nicholas of Bari, a bishop who allegedly lived in the region of present Turkey the fourth century. Nicholas of Bari, was eventually supplanted by the modern image of Santa Claus (or Father Christmas), which, despite its links to commercial Coca Cola, still retains the appearance, habits, mannerisms and companions of old mushroom pickers Chamans.

Azazel

Azazel or Azazael or Azâzêl is a term used three times in the Hebrew scriptures, and later in Hebrew mythology as the enigmatic name of a character. The meaning of Azael is that of "who God strengthens".

The term in the Bible is limited to three uses in Leviticus 16, where a goat is designated la-aza'zeyl; either "for absolute removal" or "for Azazel" and outcast in the desert as part of Yom Kippur.

According to Rabbinic interpretation, Azazel is a theophoric name, combined of the words "Azaz" (rugged) and "El" (powerful/strong/of God) in reference to the rugged and strong rocks of the deserts in Judea. The Talmud, explaining the laws of Yom Kippur, states that the term "Azazel" designated a rugged mountain or precipice in the wilderness from which the goat was thrown down, using for it as an alternative the word "Ẓoḳ" (Yoma vi. 4). "Azazel" is regarded as a compound of "az", strong or rough, and "el", mighty, therefore a strong mountain. This derivation is presented by a Baraita, cited Yoma 67b, that Azazel was the strongest of mountains.

The medieval mystic Nachmanides (1194–1270) identified the Hebrew text as referring to a demon, and identified this "Azazel" with Samael. However, he did not see the sending of the goat as honouring Azazel as a deity, but as a symbolic expression of the idea that the people's sins and their evil consequences were to be sent back to the spirit of desolation and ruin, the source of all impurity. The very fact that the two goats were presented before God, before the one was sacrificed and the other sent into the wilderness, was proof that Azazel was not ranked alongside God, but regarded simply as the personification of wickedness in contrast with the righteous government of God.

Maimonides (1134–1204) says that as sins cannot be taken off one’s head and transferred elsewhere, the ritual is symbolic, enabling the penitent to discard his sins: “These ceremonies are of a symbolic character and serve to impress man with a certain idea and to lead him to repent, as if to say, ‘We have freed ourselves of our previous deeds, cast them behind our backs and removed them from us as far as possible'.

Christianity teachs that, the scapegoat, or Azazel, is a symbol for Satan. It has been interpreted to be a prefigure of the final judgment by which sin is removed forever from the universe. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sins of the believers are forgiven them, but the fact that sins were committed still exist on record in the "Books" of heaven (see Revelation 20:12). After the final judgment, the responsibility for all those forgiven sins are accredited to the originator of sin, Satan. After which, Satan is destroyed in the Lake of Fire. Sin no longer will exist anywhere.

Changeling

The world means froud. In Myht; a changeling is a creature found in Western European folklore and religion. It is typically described as being the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has been secretly left in the place of a human child. Sometimes the term is also used to refer to the child who was taken. The apparent changeling could also be a stock or fetch, an enchanted piece of wood that would soon appear to grow sick and die. The theme of the swapped child is common among medieval literature and reflects concern over infants afflicted by as-then unknown diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities.

A human child might be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice. Most often it was thought that fairies exchanged the children. Some Norwegian tales tell that the change was made to prevent inbreeding: to give trolls and humans new blood, humans were given children with enormous strength as a reward. In some rare cases, the very elderly of the Fairy people would be exchanged in the place of a human baby, and then the old fairy could live in comfort, being coddled by its human parents. Simple charms, such as an inverted coat or open iron scissors left where the child sleeps, were thought to ward them off; other measures included a constant watch over the child.

Perhaps the changeling myths of this time period reflect the feudal political structure, where inheritance is the only real way to gain personal or political power. A monarch gave the throne to his first surviving son at his own death. When there was any doubt to the legitimacy of the child, the power of the very state could be called into question and a fight for political power could arise. This inherent fear of war caused by political strife could have been mythologized.

Djinn

In many modern cultures, a Genie is portrayed as a magical being that grants wishes. The earliest of such Jinn stories in folklore originate in the book of the One thousand and One Nights.

Amongst archeologists dealing with ancient Middle Eastern cultures, any spirit lesser than angels is often referred to as a jinni, especially when describing stone carvings or other forms of art.

Werewolf

A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope, is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an antropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse and/or lycanthropic affliction via a bite or scratch from a werewolf, or some other means. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon, as popularly noted by the medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, and perhaps in earlier times among the ancient Greeks through the writings of Petronius.

In addition to the natural characteristics inherent to both wolves and humans, werewolves are often attributed strength and speed far beyond those of wolves or men. The werewolf is generally held as a European character, although its lore spread through the world in later times. Shape-shifters, similar to werewolves, are common in tales from all over the world, most notably amongst the Native Americans, though most of them involve animal forms other than wolves.

Werewolves are a frequent subject of modern fiction, although fictional werewolves have been attributed traits distinct from those of original folklore. For example, the ideas that werewolves are only vulnerable to silver bullets or pierced by silver weapons, or that they can cause others to become werewolves by biting or wounding them derive from works of modern fiction. Werewolves continue to endure in modern culture and fiction, with books, films and television shows cementing the werewolf's stance as a dominant figure in horror.

Tricster

In myhology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or antropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen (2001) that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this context by Daniel G. Brinton in 1885.


In myhology, the trickster deity breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously (e.g. Loki) but usually, albeit unintentionally, with ultimately positive effects. Often, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form of tricks (e.g. Eris) or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both; they are often funny even when considered sacred or performing important cultural tasks. An example of this is the sacred lktomi, whose role is to play tricks and games and by doing so raises awareness and acts as an equalizer.

In later folklore, the trickster/clown is incarnated as a clever, mischievous man or creature, who tries to survive the dangers and challenges of the world using trickery and deceit as a defense. He also is known for entertaining people as a clown does. For example many typical fairy tales have the King who wants to find the best groom for his daughter by ordering several trials. No brave and valiant prince or knight manages to win them, until a poor and simple peasant comes. With the help of his wits and cleverness, instead of fighting, he evades or fools monsters and villains and dangers with unorthodox manners. Therefore the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the reward. More modern and obvious examples of that type are Bugs Bunny, The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) and Pippi Longstocking.

In some fiction, villains come in the form of physically unintimidating characters who seek to defeat the protagonist using cerebral, yet whimsical methods. They are typically non-deadly in their intents and may only seek to humiliate or outwit the protagonist. Often such villains lean towards comedy, and conflicts with them are generally resolved non-violently. They may be recurring characters, such as members of the Q Continuum in several Star Trek series. In comics, The Riddler is often presented as one of the less violent members of Batman's rogue's gallery. Others, like The Joker and Loki, can qualify as trickster villains, but can also lean more towards malice than clever whimsy.

Resheph

Resheph (Rašap, Rešef, Reshef; Canaanite/Hebrew ršp רשף) was a Canaanite deity of plague and war. In Egyptian iconography Resheph is depicted wearing the crown of Upper Egypt surmounted in front by the head of a gazelle. He has links with Theban war god Montu and was thought of as a guardian deity in battle by many Egyptian pharaohs. Although the iconography of Resheph shares the gazelle with that of the Egyptian-Canaanite Shed, Izak Cornelius writes that "the rest of the attributes are totally different". According to myth, Resheph exerted a benign influence against disease.

Rakshasa

A Rakshasa (Malay/Indonesian: raksasa, Bengali: rakkhosh, Assamese: raikhox) or alternatively rakshas, is a race of mythological humanoid beings or unrighteous spirit in Hindu and Buddhist religion. Rakshasas are also called man-eaters ("Nri-chakshas," "Kravyads"). A female Rakshasa is called a Rakshasi, and a female Rakshasa in human form is a Manushya-Rakshasi. Often Asura and Rakshasa are interchangeably used.

According to the Ramayana, Rakshasas were created from Brahma's foot; other sources claim they are descended from Pulastya, or from Khasa, or from Nirriti and Nirrita. Hinduism maintains that the Rakshasas were particularly wicked humans in previous incarnations. Rakshasas are notorious for disturbing sacrifices, desecrating graves, harassing priests, possessing human beings, and so on. Their fingernails are venomous, and they feed on human flesh and spoiled food. They are shapehangers, illusionists, and magicians.

Ellen Gives Info:

It's a race of ancient Hindu creatures. They appear in human form. They feed on human flesh. They can make themselves invisible and they cannot enter a home without, first being invited.

Rakshasa's live in squalor. They sleep on a bed of dead insects. 

They have to feed a few times, every 20-30 years. Slow metabolism. 

A dagger made of pure brass could kill it.

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person/being. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in many cultures, and may go back to "prehistoric times", the term vampire was not popularized until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.

While even folkloric vampires of the Balkans and Eastern Europe had a wide range of appearance ranging from nearly human to bloated rotting corpses, it was interpretation of the vampire by the Christian Church and the success of vampire literature, namely John Polidon's 1819 novella The Vampyre that established the archetype of charismatic and sophisticated vampire; it is arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century, inspiring such works as Varney the Vampire and eventually Dracula. The Vampyre was itself based on Lord Byron's unfinished story "Fragmentt of a Novel", also known as "The Burial: A Fragment", published in 1819.

However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and which provided the basis of modern vampire fiction. Dracula drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy". The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, video games, and television shows. The vampire is such a dominant figure in the horror genre that literary historian Susan Sellers places the current vampire myth in the "comparative safety of nightmare fantasy".

Supernatural Told Us:

Most vampire lores are crap. A cross won't repel them, sunlight won't kill them and neither will stake to the heart. They're not afraid of the sunlight. Direct sunlight hurts like a nasty sunburn. Only way to kill them is: By Beheading.

They have no fangs, teeth. A second set descents when they attack.

But bloodlust part, that part is true. They need fresh human blood to survive. 

They were once people, so you won't know it's a vampire until it's too late. 

Vampires nest groups of 8-10. Smaller packs are sent out to hunt for food. Victims are taken to the nest. The pack keeps them alive, bleedind for days or weeks.

They sleep during the day. Doesn't mean they won't wake up.  They'll wait till night. 

Once a vampire gets your scent, it for life. When it does, you gotta find the nearest funeral home. Dead Man' Blood is like a poison to them. 

Vampires mate for life. 

Shtriga

The Albanian: Shtriga (Latin:strix, Italian: strega, Romanian: striga, Polish: strzyga), in Albanian folklore, was a vampiric witch that would suck the blood of infants at night while they slept, and would then turn into a flying insect (traditionally a moth,fly or bee). Only the shtriga herself could cure those she had drained (often by spitting in their mouths), and those who were not cured inevitably sickened and died. Also means just a witch, a person that uses magic. The male noun for shtriga is shtrigu or shtrigan.

The television show Supernatural had an episode on a Shtriga who Dean believes attacked Sam during their childhood. The Shtriga could only be killed by an iron round while feeding, and it fed on "spiritus vitae" "breath of life". The shtriga was revealed to be a male pediatrician at the town hospital.

TV SHOW SAYS

It's kind of a witch. They're Albanian but the legends about them dates back to Ancient Rome. They need of spiritus vitae(breath of life). Kind of like your life force or essence. She/he takes your vitae your immunity goes to hell, pneumonia takes hold.

Sthrigas can feed of anyone but they prefer children. Probably becouse they have strong life force.

The kids aren't responding to antibiotics. Their white cell count keeps going down. Their immune systems just aren't doing their job. It's like their bodies wearing out.

The way it spreads, it works its way through families but only the children; one sibling after another...

Sthrigas are invulnerable to all weapons devised by God and man. She's only vulnerable when she feeds. If you cath her while eating, you can blast her with consecrated wrought iron. Buckshots or rounds.

Sthrigas take on human disguise when they're not hunting. historically, someting innocuous. Could be anything but it's usually a feeble old women which may be how the whole witches-as-old-crones legend got started. 

Tulpa

Tulpa  is an upaya concept in Tibetian Buddhism and Bon, discipline and teaching tool. The term was first rendered into English as 'Thoughtformé by Evans-Wentz.

Tibetian Spirit Sigil

In as much as the mind creates the world of appearances, it can create any particular object desired. The process consists of giving palpable being to a visualization, in very much the same manner as an architect gives concrete expression in three dimensions to his abstract concepts after first having given them expression in the two-dimensions of his blue-print. The Tibetans call the One Mind's concretized visualization the Khorva (Hkhorva), equivalent to the Sanskrit Sangsara; that of an incarnate deity, like the Dalai or Tashi Lama, they call a Tul-ku (Sprul-sku), and that of a magician a Tul-pa (Sprul-pa), meaning a magically produced illusion or creation. A master of yoga can dissolve a Tul-pa as readily as he can create it; and his own illusory human body, or Tul-ku, he can likewise dissolve, and thus outwit Death. Sometimes, by means of this magic, one human form can be amalgamated with another, as in the instance of the wife of Marpa, guru of Milarepa, who ended her life by incorporating herself in the body of Marpa. 

Winchester boys tell us:
Tulpa is a Tibetian thought form. 

There was an incident at Tibet in 1915. A group of monks visualize a golem in their heads. They meditate in it so hard, they bring the thing to life. Out of thin air.

That was 20 monks. Imagine what 10000 web surfers could do.

Daeva

Daeva (daēuua, daāua, daēva) in Avestan language meaning "a being of shining light", is a term for a particular sort of supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. Equivalents in Iranian languages include Pashto dêw (Uber ghost, demon, giant), Baluchi dêw (giant, monster), Persian dīv (a demon, an ogre, a giant), Kurdish dêw (giant, monster). The Iranian word is borrowed into Urdu as deo, in Armenian as dew and Georgian as devi. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are 'wrong gods' or 'false gods' or 'gods that are (to be) rejected'. This meaning is – subject to interpretation – perhaps also evident in the Old Persian 'daiva inscription' of the 5th century BCE. In the Younger Avesta, texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are noxious creatures that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore, the dēws (Zoroastrian Middle Persian; New Persian divs) are personifications of every imaginable evil.

Winchester guys said:

Zoroastrian, very very old scholl like 2000 years before Christ.

Daeva translates to "demon of darkness". 

Zoroastrian demons, they're savage, animalistic. Nasty attitues, kind of like demonic pit bulls.

 They have to be summoned, conjured. 

It is pretty risky business too. They tend to bite the hand that feeds them. And the arms, torso...

Nobody knows how they look like. Nobody sees them for a couple of millenia. 

Sigil for Daeva

Grim Reaper

The concept of death as a sentient entity has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, Death is often given the name Grim Reaper and from the 15th century onwards, came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood. It is also given the name of the Angel of Death or Devil of Death or the angel of dark and light (Malach HaMavet) stemming from the Bible and Talmudic lore.

Ancient Greece found Death to be inevitable, and, therefore, he is not represented as purely evil. He is often portrayed as a bearded and winged man, but has also been portrayed as a young boy. Death, or Thanatos, is the counterpart of life, death being represented as male, and life as female.

Breton (Celtic) folklore shows us a spectral figure portending death, the Ankou, Usually, the Ankou is the spirit of the last person that died within the community and appears as a tall, haggard figure with a wide hat and long white hair or a skeleton with a revolving head who sees everybody everywhere. The Ankou drives a deathly wagon or cart with a creaking axle. The cart or wagon is piled high with corpses and a stop at a cabin means instant death for those inside.

Supernatural says:

There's a reaper lore in pretty much every culture in the world. Go by different names. It's possible there more than one of them. 

Reapers stop time.
You can only see em when they're coming at you.
Can trade a life for another.