What IS magic?

I've already given ye dictionaryDOTcom's definition of magic, as well as Alan Moore's description thereof. But like almost everything in this weird wide world of ours, there's tons more where that came from. So here's the first batch of what I fancy will be an ongoing series: what various folks have to say about what they think magic actually is.


“[Magic] is the study in which natural forces, energies, and gods can be compelled or induced to help us.”

-- Christine Wicker

“I define magic as the art of affecting the manifest through the Unmanifest. The manifest is all that can be seen, touched, perceived, manipulated, imagined, or understood. The Unmanifest is none of these things. It is the place, or rather the non-place, from which everything issues…. It follows that every magical act is a communication with God, however the deity may be conceived or defined by the individual. In fact it is not necessary to talk about God in connection with magic, which is a technique for causing real change in a world that has little to do with common religious sensibility.”

-- Donald Tyson, The Truth about Ritual Magic

“Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.”

-- Aleister Crowley

"Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a conceptual system that asserts human ability to control or predict the natural world (including events, objects, people, and physical phenomena) through mystical, paranormal or supernatural means. The term can also refer to the practices employed by a person asserting this ability, and to beliefs that explain various events and phenomena in such terms."

-- Wikipedia

"Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality. Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore. The two are rarely compatible."

-- Neil Gaiman

Magic is a precision science! It is also:

• The science of deliberate creation.
• The science of effective prayer.
• The science of manifesting Higher Will (God's Will) on the energetic and material planes.
• The science of heightened awareness, selective perception, and dynamic, harmonious relationships.
• The study of intention (as per Aleister Crowley, one of the greatest magicians).
• The system of creation, not coercion.

--Shamanschool.com

"...the essential energy which circulates in the Universe of the Gods, as well as in that of humans." -- Christian Jaq

“Religion and magical thinking are so intertwined that scholars still argue over where the dividing line is…. Religion tends toward supplication, whereas magic sets forced into operation, commands, and demands. It relies on the power of objects, of symbols, of words, and of human will. It empowers human experience over doctrine. Religious people wait on God; magical people push. Magic cuts out the clergy, dispensing with their role, usurping their power. And instead of telling people that they should not want what they do want, magic tries to help them get it.”

– Christine Wicker, Not in Kansas Anymore:
A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America

"...magic is: the dawning understanding of how things all fit together. And how it works, and how frightening and intricate and gigantic it all is and yet how bloody simple, based on a simple binary iteration of ones and zeroes." -- Grant Morrison