Having looked at the skills of becoming invisible/unnoticeable through blending with nature and clouding people’s perceptions, we now move into the use of magick and working with Deities associated with this art. In the classical myths of the Greeks, and the Celts there are stories of Gods and Goddesses with items or powers that they used to make themselves, and the occasional mortal, invisible. Hermes’ cloak of invisibility, and the Helm (hat) of Darkness belonging to Hades, God of the underworld, are two such items. Other Deities from the same pantheon were known to borrow them from time to time. One of the most famous being the Goddess Athena who used it in the Trojan War to great effect- even enabling a mortal to wound the God of War and the Goddess of Love (!).

Manannán mac Lir, is the Celtic God of the sea, and patron Deity of the Isle of Manannán – said to be the most magickal island in the UK. It is located in the Irish Sea and today called The Isle of Man. He is famous in legend for using sea fog to hide the whole island, as well as to ‘cloak’ himself and favoured mortals when the situation demanded it. I have seen how effectively a person, who had Manannán as a patron, called on the God to aid him in raising a mist. In this case it was to aid protesters of a road-building project to enter a guarded compound and do a bit of ‘Monkeywrenching’.

Rather than a full formal ritual the Mage called upon the God directly, explaining what we assembled Pagans from different styles were about to do and why. Then he asked those of us that were active magick users to come forward slightly and form a semi-circle facing him, kneel or sit, place our hands on the ground and project our Chi into the ground. While we were doing this the Mage began to hum softly. Very shortly after we began to do this the air felt as though it was thickening like thin glue then, to my amazement, a tendril of mist materialised about midway between us and the Mage. Then eddies of fog started to appear all around us and sank to the ground. Forming a low-lying blanket that flowed out and began to expand upward to become fully-fledged sea fog. I say sea fog as it actually smelt of the sea even though we were several miles inland. Within twenty minutes we were surrounded by a fog so dense you almost literally could not see your hand in front of your face. The Mage then went along the group tapping each of us on the shoulder as a signal to stop. The fog lasted for a good six hours, long enough for not only the monkeywrenchers to do their thing, but for some other interesting happenings to occur.

The entrance to the contractors’ compound became blocked in as locals couldn’t see where to park and just left their cars in the first perceived safe spot off the road. It took until mid-morning for enough cars and vans to be moved before the gateway was clear. Not that clearing the jam helped a lot, as none of the digging and earth-moving machinery would even start. We were told later the fog was also blamed for all the electrical faults that caused the machinery to fail. To this day I wonder how much was down to the fog, and how much to rubber washers screwed behind battery earth connections, and “liquid bandage” painted on the rotor arms.

However working with a Deity is not the only way to become unnoticeable. Your own magickal energies can be used and focused so that you become less perceivable to people. Everyone has an “energy signature” which is why you can feel someone looking at you, and their presence nearby in many circumstances. By mentally and energetically blending and becoming one with your environment you can become invisible to other people even on a crowded street.

This is how a lot of photographs of supposed ‘ghosts’ occur, especially those where the photographer and witnesses swear that there was no-one else in the area. The people were there, but no-one noticed them because they blended in with their background. This also happens if you are intent on a particular task or watching an engrossing performance. One example of this is the 1975 psychology experiment when students were asked to watch a video of a group of people passing a basketball to each other in different ways. The subjects’ task was to count the number of different passes made. In the middle of the video a man in a gorilla suit walked behind the players. When questioned later none of the students had noticed the gorilla so intent had they been on counting the number of passes. Thus the less of an impression you project, the more ‘invisible’ you become.

The best way to do this is to concentrate on your aura contracting down to the level of your skin, and then visualise - and feel - yourself becoming faded and transparent, leaving just a pale outline. This is so that people will still perceive you subconsciously and not run into you. Defocus your gaze and use your peripheral vision as your main way of seeing. A focused gaze seems to draw attention to the owner. Russian parapsychological research suggests that the eyes project a form of energy in the microwave band this can be perceived by sensitive areas of the skull of the person being stared at. Using peripheral vision greatly lessens the chances of your glance drawing attention to yourself.

Combining these techniques with the ones discussed in earlier chapters and you effectively become invisible to most untrained people. The addition of magickal skills helps you become difficult to notice even for trained people such as the security services and Special Forces. Actually you may be mistaken for fellow members of those two groups, as significant numbers of them practice this type of magick or similar psychospiritual skills for use in their work.

These techniques of invisibility work best at the interpersonal level, you still reflect light and can be seen on CCTV, or if you inadvertently attract attention. Practice lessens the chance of the latter and projected personal energy can significantly affect many types of modern technology. In the final part of this series of articles you will learn of some of the times I have used the skills outlined in them in order to become invisible in the middle of a street, evade people searching for me, and enter a supposedly well-guarded embassy.