The Grimoire Day 18

I don't know many people who think they need help being invisible; my culture only continues to exist on our facility for ignorance and forgetting, so I include this for two reasons.  First because being unnoticed is different from being invisbile, and the former is often too easy and rarely useful while the latter can be difficult and also rewarding.  The second reason is that once you control one aspect of your presence, it becomes a lot easier to control the other, and willful visibility is far more dangerous for many obvious reasons.

Before we begin, I do not mean that light shines through your body like you weren't there invisibility.  Like most really dramatic things that magic is supposedly able to do, I have heard some people claim to have been able to do that, but I've never seen it (that, in this case is not as compelling evidence of absence as it usually is, I'll grant).  What I am peddling today is a way to help control who notices and does not notice you.  Human brains have an amazing capacity to forget, and there are times when you want to be forgotten, when you want attention to pass over you.  It will not necessarily prevent someone who is looking specifically for you from finding you, and I cannot guarantee it will protect you from someone who means to do you harm, but it can come in very handy a lot of the time.

1) Decide to be invisible before you feel you need to be invisible.  Invisibility is something you need to plan before you use it, at least until you become very confident in your powers of invisiblity.  If you try to become invisible out of fear, you'll only end up drawing attention to yourself.  So no matter what, let your fear go before you try this, and be ready to confront whoever might confront you, if you need to.  I'm not a fan of the idea that fearing an outcome makes the outcome more likely, but, in the case of self defense, looking like the weak, sick prey critter is just as bad as looking like a cocky tough one.  Worse on average.  And acting out of fear is never a good idea.

2) Ground and let your fears roll off you.  Once you have decided to make youself invisible, quiet down your thoughts as much as you are able.  Think of a song and concentrate on singing it.  Songs can be powerful talismans, and the one above is better for this than some. 

3) You can interweave invisibility into your other protections.  A lot of the urban witches I know go big in for this, just because living in a city can be very exhausting if you are sensitive, and invisibility offers some cover of privacy when you're in the throng.  Also, to minimize the encounters with the more distressing specimens of your fellow man.  N- mentioned visualizing how glycerin is invisible in water and incorporates that into the creation of his protections.  I go in for a smoky sort of mirror effect, which is not nearly so subtle or effective when still, but works really well for movement, and helps me adapt it to visibility when I aim to be seen.

4) You may want to practice a little before you put this into serious use.  I cut my teeth being invisible to mall security (don't ask why), and, as long as you're not trying to use it on the mall security cameras (which work a lot better than human eyes where catching shoplifters are concerned, so don't take this as me advocating such.  I'm pretty sure security has only gotten better since I was one of the bad kids), it's good exercise.  Mall cops are perfect for this, since they are generally looking for people who are misbehaving, they have uniforms that identify them, and you're not misbehaving, right?!  

5) Don't be furtive.  When you move, move.  When you're still be still.  Be like the Unicorn in The Last Unicorn.  Don't frighten yourself.  You're a fish in the river, an breeze of air in the wind, or dust, or a spark flying up and just continuing in the dark after the light has gone out.  

6) Practice makes this work.  Practice, even when you don't need to.

7) If you are confronted by someone you wanted to avoid, use all the stuff I told you about when dealing with invisible critters.  Stand your ground, don't be hostile, but don't let them close, either.  If you were trying to be invisible then you were prepared for this.  If you kept your mind quiet, then you're better able to handle it.  If your opponent isn't, then you have the advantage.  

8) Once you're a little comfortable with this, you might want to start on the more advanced process which is essentially being visible to people you want seeing you and invisble to those you don't.  This takes practice, and it's a sort of practice that's a little tricky to describe, but like being invisible, it's a deceptively simple matter of
a) making your intention clear
b) acting on that intention
c) observing what happens around you and
d) changing your actions to suit what you observe in light of your intentions.  First you kill the grizzly bear...