Some exploration is meant to be taken in the text regarding the nature and definition of a “conscious” being. Consciousness is meant to be interpreted as something less binary (i.e. either something is or is not) and more of a continuum or gradient that permeates every abstraction to reality. A common inspiration for this comes from the idea of panpsychism, where almost any entity in the universe has some modal level of consciousness.
Within the theories of magic presented, it is often implied and sometimes outright admitted that every entity has some amount of “Sentia” associated with it that acts as sort of a “quanta” of consciousness. This include things as inanimate as rocks or even individual atoms. You might consider how individual electrons move in and throughout certain materials and how the efficiency of this could affect macroscopic properties (see technology). What if Magi could “communicate” with these subatomic particles and “coax” them, one conscious entity to another? This is one way of describing the modus operandi of certain “magical” effects. In this sense, there is a sort of hierarchy to consciousness, where perhaps entities of a higher-level of consciousness, have a certain dominion over those with a lower-level.
Expressed more formally within the magic system, every entity in the universe creates some amount of displacement within the Æther Field that can influence other entities in some capacity. This is referred to has an entity’s Æther Flux.