1 INVISIBILITY One of the most closely guarded of all occult secrets is the art of invisibility. For centuries magicians and adepts have hinted at ways of achieving this seemly impossible feat, but now these ideas have been brought together for the first time to form a complete manual on how invisibility can be accomplished. Drawing on alchemy, Rosicrucianism, medieval magic, hypnotism, Einsteinian physics and yogic techniques, Steve Richards presents an authoritative and entertaining investigation into this extraordinary subject. 2 Also in this series: UNDERSTANDING ASTROLOGY Sasha Fenton UNDERSTANDING AURAS Joseph Ostrom UNDERSTANDING THE CHAKRAS Peter Rendel UNDERSTANDING CRYSTALS Ellen Cameron UNDERSTANDING NUMEROLOGY D. Jason Cooper UNDERSTANDING PALMISTRY Mary Anderson UNDERSTANDING REINCARNATION J. H. Brennan UNDERSTANDING TAROT Jocelyn Almond and Keith Seddon UNDERSTANDING THE I CHING Tom Riseman UNDERSTANDING RUNES Michael Howard 3 INVISIBILITY Mastering the art of vanishing By Steve Richards 4 Contents CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................................7 THE INVISIBILES...............................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER TWO.....................................................................................................................................16 ECTOPLASM, AND ALL THAT.......................................................................................................16 CHAPTER THREE..................................................................................................................................29 THE MYSTERIES OF ALCHEMY...................................................................................................29 CHAPTER FOUR....................................................................................................................................40 HOW YOU SEE IT, HOW YOU DON'T............................................................................................40 CHAPTER FIVE......................................................................................................................................51 HOW TO EXTEND YOUR SIGHT...................................................................................................51 CHAPTER SIX........................................................................................................................................66 HOW TO OBSCURE VISION...........................................................................................................66 CHAPTER SEVEN..................................................................................................................................83 FORMING THE CLOUD...................................................................................................................83 CHAPTER EIGHT..................................................................................................................................98 DISAPPEARING À LA PATANJALI.................................................................................................98 CHAPTER NINE...................................................................................................................................124 GOLDEN DAWN METHODS.........................................................................................................124 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is grateful to Llewellyn Publications of Saint Paul, Minnesota, for their permission to quote from Israel Regardie's The Gold Dawn, and, as usual, to the staff of the Olcott Library and Research Center in Wheaton, Illinois, for their assistance and for the loan of documents. 6 CHAPTER ONE THE INVISIBILES It was springtime, the month was March, and although the year was 1623 the people of Paris had already acquired their penchant for good food, good wine, and good conversation. There had been little to talk about recently, however. The king was at Fontainebleau, the war in Germany was going well for the Catholic cause, and the realm was at peace. One could, of course, grouse about the badauds who stood about uselessly in the city's streets. The badauds were always good for a little early morning grumbling. But on this particular morning they would hardly have mattered. For the night before, the night of 3 March 1623, the city of Paris had been quietly invaded. Not by the hated boche or the much-feared English; but by a group of men who claimed magical powers, men who called themselves the Rosicrusians. 'For eight years these enthusiasts [had] made converts in Germany,' wrote Charles Mackay, 'but they excited little or no attention in other parts of Europe. At last they made their appearance in Paris, and threw all the learned, all the credulous, and all the lovers of the marvellous into commotion. In the beginning of March 1623 the good folks of that city, when they arose one morning, were surprised to find all their walls placarded with the following singular manifesto: 7 INVISIBILITY “We, the deputies of the principal College of the Brethren of The RoZe-Croix [sic] have taken up our abode, visible and invisible, in this city, by the grace of the Most High towards whom are turned the hearts of the just. We shew and teach without books or signs, and speak all sorts of languages in the countries where we dwell, to draw mankind, our fellows, from error and from death.” According to the Mercure François, manuscript copies of the placard were passed round hand to hand, and some were affixed to signposts at crossroads — a fact that could not fail to have some magical significance. 'For a long time this strange placard was the sole topic of conversation in all public places,' says Mackay. 'Some few wondered, but the greater number only laughed at it. In the course of a few weeks, two books were published, which raised the first alarm respecting this mysterious society, whose dwelling-place no one knew, and no members of which had ever been seen. The first was called a history of The frightful Compacts entered into between the Devil and the pretended “invisibles”; with their damnable instructions, the deplorable Ruin of their Disciples, and their miserable end. The other was called An Examination of the new unknown Cabala of the Brethren of the Rose-Cross, who have lately inhabited the City of Paris; with the History of their Manners, the Wonders worked by them, and many other particulars.' The newsmakers on the Pont Neuf, who published these books, gave the mysterious brethren the name 'the Invisibles'. These books sold rapidly. Everyone was anxious to know something of this dreadful and secret brotherhood. The baduads of Paris were so alarmed that they daily expected to see the arch- enemy walking in propria persona among them. It was said in these volumes that the Rosicrucian society consisted of six-and- thirty persons in all, who had renounced their baptism and hope of resurrection. That it was not by good angels, as they pretended, that they worked their prodigies; but that it was the devil who gave them power to transport themselves from one end of the world to the other with the rapidity of thoughts; to speak all languages; to have 8 THE INVISIBLES their purses always full of money, however much they might spend; to be invisible and penetrate into the most secret places, in spite of fastenings of bolts and bars; and to be able to tell the past and future. These thirty-six brethren were divided into bands or companies: six of them only had been sent on the mission to Paris, six to Italy, six to Spain, six to Germany, four to Sweden, and two into Switzerland, two into Flanders, two into Lorraine, and two into Franche Comte. It was generally believed that the missionaries to France resided somewhere in the Marais du Temple. That quarter of Paris soon acquired a bad name, and people were afraid to take houses in it, lest they should be turned out by the six invisibles of the Rose-Cross. It was believed by the populace, and by many others whose education should have taught them better, that persons of a mysterious aspect used to visit the inns and hotels of Paris, eat of the best meats and drink of the best wines, and then suddenly melt away into thin air when the landlord came with the reckoning. That gentle maidens, who went to bed alone, often awoke in the night and found men with them, of shape more beautiful than the Greek Apollo, who immediately became invisible when an alarm was raised. It was also said that many persons found large heaps of gold in their houses without knowing from whence they came. All Paris was in alarm. No man thought himself secure of his goods, no maiden of her virginity, or wife of her chastity, while these Rosicrucians were abroad. In the midst of the commotion, a second placard was issued, to the following effect: 'If any one desires to see the brethren of the Rose-Cross from curiosity alone, he will never communicate with us. But if his will really induces him to inscribe his name in the register of our brotherhood, we, who can judge the thoughts of men, will convince him of the truth of our promises. For this reason we do not publish to the world the place of our abode. Thought alone, in unison with the sincere will of those who desire to know us, is sufficient to make us known to them, and them to us.' 9 INVISIBILITY Though the existence of such society as that of the Rose-Cross was problematical, it was quite evident that somebody or other was concerned in the promulgation of these placards, which were stuck up on every wall in Paris. The police endeavoured in vain to find out the offenders, and their want of success only served to increase the perplexity of the public. Gabriel Naude, a contemporary writer who lived through these events, says that popular feeling concerning the Rosicrucians built up in France until it was sweeping across the country with the ferocity of a hurricane. All sorts of fantastic rumours were abroad. Hentry Neuhusius, who wrote a Pious and Very Useful Advertisement Concerning the Brothers of the Rose-Cross, contended that there were three Rosicrucian Colleges in the whole world. One was in India 'in an isle floating in the sea [!], another in Canada, and the third in the city of Paris, in certain subterranean places'. Some believed that the Invisibles were on the side of God; others the Devil. 'Such was the consternation in Paris,' reported Chambers' Journal, 'that every man who could not give a satisfactory account of himself was in danger of being pelted to death; and quiet citizens slept with loaded muskets at their bedsides, to take vengeance upon any Rosicrucian who might violate the sanctity of their chambers.' The row lasted well into 1624, by which time we may well imagine that the Rosicrucians had long since skipped out of France, as invisibility as they arrived. However, they did not skip out of Europe, and there is evidence that their techniques for making themselves invisible were still taught. Intimations to that effect have been found in the papers left behind by eminent men known to have been Rosicrucian brethren. One of these was Elias Ashmole, who left a 'recipe how to walk invisible' among the papers desposited at the Bodleian library. Another of these was John Macky, an early Masonic leader — the early Masons were believed to be a resurrection of the old Rosicrucian Order — who taught 'a Mansonicall Art, by which any man could (in a moment) render himself invisible'. Some of these techniques are suspect. For example, there is a supposedly Rosicrucian recipe for invisibility in one of the 10