Comments/suggestions:

• I would name the subroutines attach and unattach rather than attach_var and unattach_var (they're attaching the reference not the variable.)
• Maybe have the name default to the current package, rather than Magic::Attach? I'd lean towards making it compulsary.
• This kind of thing:

  my $foo = attached($ref,'elements') || attach_var($ref,$something,'ele
  +ments')
  [download]

  is likely to be common enough to encapsulate. Maybe:

  my $foo = attach_default($ref, $something, 'elements');
  [download]

• Data::Attach rather than Magic::Attach? I don't think Magic is an appropriate top-level namespace... Devel::Attach would be good too.

Can't really comment on the implementation - I don't know the internals well enough.

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