The definition of magic I go by is “affecting consciousness in accordance with will”, and when you’re going to watch fireflies with the thought in mind to appreciate them aesthetically, then yes, they are actual magic.
Magic produces change by working directly with consciousness. Its effects often spill over into the physical world, but this occurs only indirectly. This is, in an important sense, the exact opposite of what modern science does. Science causes changes in the physical world in accordance with the “laws” of the physical world. Magic and science not only work by different means; they also work toward different ends, and, in fact, this difference in ends accounts for the difference in means. This is why practitioners of magic don’t conduct laboratory experiments, and why scientists don’t intone chants before altars inscribed with emotionally powerful symbols. The apologists for the conventions of our own age often claim that magic is a “primitive,” immature groping toward science, and now that science has arrived, magic is obsolete. But science and magic are different enterprises altogether. Neither can entirely supersede the other. Indeed, as will be discussed below, magic is as alive and well in the modern world as it’s ever been – it’s just been brilliantly disguised
The definition of magic I go by is “affecting consciousness in accordance with will”, and when you’re going to watch fireflies with the thought in mind to appreciate them aesthetically, then yes, they are actual magic.
https://norse-mythology.org/concepts/magic/