The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia, and China and chiefly in pursuit of an elixir of immortality, a universal panacea, and/or a philosopher's stone able to transmute base metals into gold, eventually developing into chemistry.
Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.
The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.
Occult or secret magic; magic (or, by extension/comparison, technology etc) that is mysterious, not known to or understood by many.
Magic derived from evil forces, as distinct from good or benign forces; or magic performed with the intention of doing harm.