invisibility

Polyphanes posted “Be a ninja! Remain unseen! Here’s How.”  Inspired by this post I wanted to talk about three examples of what I’ve done to hide myself, and share one of my favourite stories of (possible) magickal invisibility.
For structured and clear rituals, there is the Rose Cross. I don’t know how traditional it is, but I was taught it with the instruction that it can be used to deflect attention, to make you invisible, and I’ve had good results with that.

Another method I have takes a bit of practice. Go stand against a wall and press yourself flat against it, try to hide against the wall, even if there is nothing to cover you. Then reach out and try to draw the wall around, the energy, the perception, the concept of the wall, pull it across you like a curtain. This is all well and good if you have to hide against walls, but it’s not very portable, but the idea is. That is the training. Get used to the sensation, physical, mental, emotional, energetic/spiritual of pressing against the wall trying to avoid notice. Now stand in the middle of a room and try to flatten yourself against the centre of the room. It’s hard to explain, but just as you pressed yourself against the wall, away from the room, now you are pressing yourself away from everywhere at once. To use a sci-fi analogy by backing away from everything at once you’re pushing yourself out of phase (what does that even mean?) of our physical reality. In this state draw the room around, as you did with the wall, covering yourself in the same way. If you keep your focus on being drawn away and covered you can actually move around with this, leave the area, and pass beneath notice on the move.
The last technique is a bit simpler to pull off. All you need is a few small candles, a mirror, and a dark room. Light the candles (I prefer nine, for Lunar associations of illusion, and the ability to go unseen like the New Moon) place them within easy reach of you and turn off the light. Sit in front of the mirror (you can stand, but subtle swaying makes it more difficult) and just stare at your reflection until it starts to blur. Once it blurs for a moment blow out a candle, and see the light from the extinguished flame being drawn into you. Repeat this for each candle. The idea is you’re associating a blurred harder to see image with yourself, and you’re drawing the light from the candles, what allows you to be seen, into you. The light which illuminates you is being taken into you, is in your control.
Now, invisibility and my humorous past. No surprise, I do a lot of work in cemeteries. While there are several closer to me, there is an excellent cemetery for rituals a 20 minute walk away. This cemetery has several streams, open fields, forests, it’s great. There is one spot in that cemetery I love for rituals; two roads intersect making a crossroad, two streams go underground near there and seem to cross underneath this area at the cross-quarters, and between the roads there are small walls sealing in this crossroad. I love it. Now sometimes rituals are small…sometimes not so much. When I had a big ritual to perform there I did the Rose Cross and the Mirror/Candle to make me invisible, or so people won’t pay attention to me.
So I put on my backpack, filled with my ritual items, and limped to the cemetery -as my ritual sword was tucked in my right pant leg so it can’t be seen, but obviously limited my range of movement. I get to the cemetery about two hours after it closes, other than around Halloween security only patrols it for an hour after closing. Waiting for a lull in traffic (no need to push my luck) I snuck through the gate they never lock.  I finally arrive at my crossroads, and unpack my ritual stuff. Pillar candles set at the crossquarters of the intersection, incense in the eight directions against the wall, black silk robes put on, and of course my ritual sword now safely out of my pants. (That sounds wrong, but I’m keeping it in.)
It was a clear full moon night, so it was very bright and easy to see. I called to the Guardians of the Cemetery, set up my magickal boundaries, and dived into the ritual. About half an hour into the ritual, I’m standing in the centre of the crossroads, the walls are a good 20m at least away from me, bright moonlight while I contrast it in solid black, sword thrust toward the sky, when suddenly at the road just south of me the security guards drive by. It’s only 80m away (260 feet), nothing between us, they drive by slowly, and passed out of site.

Being confident in my magick I just stood there… okay, not really, I ran and grabbed my backpack and knelt against the farside of the wall in the shadows. This put me as far away from them as possible if they either did a U-turn, or took the next corner to loop back. And a minute passed, and another, and another. After maybe five-ten minutes, far longer than it should have taken them to get back there was still no sign of them. I move back to the centre and resume the ritual and complete it, the security guards never drove by again. Really they should have, they didn’t patrol the quarter I was in, and I was there long enough that they had enough time to cover the entire cemetery more than once.
This is always my favourite story about magickal invisibility. Though, a friend (or possibly my brother, I forget now) did give a less magickal alternative that I’m still fond of. “If you’re a security guard in a cemetery, and one full moon night you see a black robed shadow wielding a sword on the top of a hill, your first thought is ‘Fuck no. I’ve seen this horror movie’ and you keep driving.” Of course, even if they saw me and were unnerved, they paid me no attention, so in that way still a success.