My favourite metaphor for understanding magic comes from Erik Davis, who describes the Western ceremonial tradition as a “ritual technology of the imagination.” The association between magic and machine is further echoed in their shared etymological ancestry: the ancient root magh, meaning “to be able, to have power.” In magic, this power is exercised primarily through images and semiotics in the broadest sense.

Art: Art as the Mirror of All Nature (1617), by Matthaus Merian the Elder. Notice the wheel of correspondences that one could internalize by studying the image.