Posted this elsewhere, but I wanted to post it here too. I have way too many conflicting feelings on the topic of "magic".
Like for one, I have such little patience for most modern mysticism. I don't get why someone would take something like astrology seriously. Aliens feels more like a weird conspiracy theory than magic. None of these use the concept of magic or even mysticism for anything important to me. They're just weirdly prescriptivist, and overall strike me as uninteresting?
I also feel like the concept of magic gets a bad rap. If I would rank the most dangerous modern cults in my head, rationalism based cults like AI-preparedness or pure FOMO grift based stuff like NFTs strike me as the most dangerous. Sure, there may be some magical thinking here. But I'd argue these things are an appeal to reason, fear, desperation, morality, etc that just happened to be particularly untethered from reality. So I don't see why the concept of magic gets the sole blame for cult stuff. Especially when being too weird, independent, or whimsical will get you thrown out of these places. Or in other words, if you show up with your own brand of magic, these groups are unlikely to accept you.
I do believe that magic and magical thinking has a good place in understanding our place in the world. Tarot can be used for self-reflection. Things like meditation or other classically spiritual rituals can be calming. Magic can be an excuse for whimsy- show appreciation for some fictional character you like, celebrate the passing of the seasons, make shrines to concepts you like. Why merely accept society's ideals and values wholesale? Why tie yourself to a completely pre-packaged brand of spirituality? With a little magic, you can add your own ideals, world-views, and values to your life.
That said, I don't feel obligated to really sell my idea of magic to other people. I understand that- even if you kind of see magic as something you invent yourself for your own life views- people can take this stuff too far. I'd even argue that people already use and abuse this kind of magic. Although they don't call it magic, they call it charisma or something else.