Magicians are concerned with forces of Nature, even if they are peculiar, generally unrecognized, or even, to a sceptic's eye, non-existant forces.... The feats claimed by or attributed to magicians...may be "supernatural" in that they seem to break natural laws, as these laws are understood at any given time. But either the feats are unreal and impossible or, if real, they are within the order of Nature as all reality must be.
But a magician is not a scientist or psychical researcher who has gone off along an odd track. He does theorize about his secret forces but he is much more interested in employing them. Magic is concerned above all else with the acquisition and exercise of power.
"Magic is the traditional science of the secrets of Nature which has been transmitted to us from the magi. By means of this science the adept becomes invested with a species of relative omnipotence and can operate superhumanly—that is, after a manner which transcends the normal possibility of men" (Eliphas Levi). A magician with less respect for Christianity, or less anxious to avoid the unfavorable notice of the Church, would leave out the word "relative." Omnipotence unqualified, supreme power over all things, is the ultimate goal of magic, though it is expected that it may take many reincarnations and lifetimes to achieve it.
— Richard Cavendish (editor-in-chief), Man, Myth, and Magic, pp. 1682-83
