Galactic forces can be extremely overpowering. These energies are neutral in and of themselves, but when they manifest in time/space through the agency of the human psyche, anything is possible. The heights of sainthood or the depths of depravity: either of these could well be the result of the collision of the personality with the cosmos.

The late great mythologist Joseph Campbell (who died on Hallowe'en— what a guy!) relates a story from his childhood, when his priest informed him that he had a guardian angel on his right shoulder, and a tempting devil on his left. Strong black hole contacts can act like that, with the human psyche the rope in the resultant tug-of-war. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, in a state of equilibrium produced by the tension of those opposed parts of ourselves, but for those who have allowed the angel team to get dragged into the pit, the results can be devastating for themselves and others.

For our purposes, we might amend "angel" and "devil" to "spirit guide" and "vampire." The negative-seeming psychic being which develops from a dark-side-oriented Black Hole run wild can seem very vampiric, absorbing first the life energies of the human host, and then sucking the vitality out of everyone it encounters.

A good illustration of the range of manifestation from similar Black Hole contacts is the contrasting cases of Werner Erhard, founder of EST, and the Dalai Lama. Both these individuals have Suns which activate the Maser/Black Hole polarity at 12/13 Leo/Aquarius.

Werner Erhard, a giant of the human potential movement who seemed to focus his solar potential more through the excitable Maser end of the polarity, has his Sun at 12 Virgo. The Dalai Lama, whose philosophical roots incline him more toward the detachment of the Aquarian Black Hole end of the polarity, has his Sun at 13 Cancer. Thus both activate the cosmic opposition by semisextile to the Maser and inconjunct the Black Hole.

Erhard, whose impact in the 1970s and early 1980s was immense, has since been brought down by allegations of abuse and fiscal improprieties, and has emerged as a virtual cult figure, while the Dalai Lama remains a global image of spiritual leadership and holiness which few equal. Yet both have experienced complete reversals of their positions, a typical Black Hole quality: Erhard in his disgrace, the Dalai Lama in his exile.

So much for the angel team. On the negative, vampiric side of the equation we can see such notables as serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer (Sun at 0 Gemini conjunct a Maser and opposed a Black Hole), John Wayne Gacy (Sun at 26 Pisces conjunct a Black Hole and square the Galactic Center), Ted Bundy (Sun at 1 Sagittarius conjunct a Black Hole) David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" (Sun at 10 Gemini conjunct a Maser and square a Black Hole) and Andew Cunanan, Versace's killer (Sun at 8 Virgo conjunct two Black Holes). But perhaps the perfect example of Galactic contacts gone bad is David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian cult and Cosmic Nosferatu par excellance.

At first glance, Koresh's 21 Virgo Sun seems innocuous enough, with no galactic conjunctions, oppositions or squares. Close inspection, however, reveals exact aspects to three Black Holes and a Quasar.

The specifics of the contacts are extremely interesting and illuminating. Koresh's Sun aspects Black Holes at 6 Scorpio (by semisextile, 45 degrees), 3 Sagittarius (by quintile, 72 degrees) and 27 Aries (by biquintile, 144 degrees), and the 24 Aquarius Quasar (by quincinovem, a minor Novem aspect of 153 degrees). Even a novice's reading of keywords for the respective Signs shows the story clearly—Koresh as the leader (Aries) of a sexual(Scorpio)/religious(Sagittarius) cult (Aquarius).

It is probably Dionysos, BH 6 Scorpio, that was the chief engine driving this pattern, the undead heart of the vampire, as it were. For not only is Koresh's Sun in exact balsamic semisquare to this point, but his natal Pallas conjoins it. Koresh's particular brand of inspired (Pallas) sermonizing is famous, as is his penchant for "marriage" with young teen girls, an interesting manifestation of the Pallas/Dionysos contact. And in fact, it was allegations of child sexual abuse (Scorpio) which the FBI used as final justification for their April 19, 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, indicating that this was indeed the spot where the stake would do most good.

That Koresh vampirized his flock is not in doubt; all personal assets of the members were turned over to the cult, their children became Koresh's virtual property, and the women all became his wives, in principle if not in practice. Not to mention the fact that over 70 members of the cult gave their lives in the hellish inferno (fire being another of the time-honored remedies for vampirism) which ended the two-month standoff: truly the ultimate sacrifice to the vampire that was David Koresh.

The vampire is an apt metaphor for Black Hole energies—animal, irresitable magnetism; always taking, never giving; feeding off the life force and vital essences of others; insatiable hunger and ruthlessness in its appeasement. The vampire's cultural ascendancy over the past century, since Bram Stoker's publication of Dracula in 1897, is unrivaled in the annals of the metaphors of darkness.

The vampire further functions, as do Black Holes and the Samhain/Hallowe'en season, as a representative of that doorway, liminal state or period of experience. As the Black Hole is the portal between one universe and another, so is Samhain the portal between summer and winter, and the vampire between life and death, not truly belonging to either. Just as the land at Samhain is not yet dead, but no longer fruitful, a weird half-life glimmering over the landscape, so is the state of the undead vampire, who, if he is to survive and avoid the fate of the true dead, must glut himself upon the blood of the true living.

At this season of the year, when things are more than usually likely to go bump in the night, beware the Cosmic Nosferatu!