There are very dramatically different conceptions of “magic” depending on who youre asking.

Many of them are less focused on conjuring things from the ether or casting curses and are much more interested in the Crowley-interpretation (“the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will”), which, as the man himself insisted in his later life, is only magical in the sense that all sciences are basically magic before they are cleaned up and get a proper light shown on them, effectively transmuting them into legitimate scientific pursuits.

It’s less about summoning chi and moving things with your mind, and more about using your mind as a means of intentional interface, rather than for the default of passive experience. It is essentially a combination of performance art, psychology, philosophy, and the general understanding (as well as the functional application of that knowledge) of both yourself and the world(s) we are all subject to. Magic, as it is commonly defined now, is taking an idea and finding the best way to take that intangible, barely real spark and turn it into whatever new thing you’d like to turn it into. Within reason ofc.