A Teacher
David Conway
Magic as natural philosophy
The transmission
David Conway (b. 1942; pen name of a Welsh civil servant and author) wrote one of the most influential practical magic manuals of the modern revival: Magic: An Occult Primer (1972).
Appearing at the height of renewed popular interest in the occult, it offered a complete, self-contained course in ceremonial magic written with unusual literary polish and intellectual seriousness. Conway presented magic not as superstition but as a coherent natural philosophy — a worked-out theory of subtle energies, the astral light, and the trained will operating on a continuum between mind and matter.
His later The Magic of Herbs and a revised, expanded edition of his primer (Magic Without Mirrors / The Complete Magic Primer) confirmed his standing as a clear systematizer of the Western magical worldview.
What they gave
A complete self-instruction course: Magic: An Occult Primer let readers undertake serious magical training without a lodge.
- Magic as natural philosophy: Articulated a rational metaphysics of subtle energy and the astral plane underpinning the will’s action on reality.
- The trained will and imagination: Centered disciplined mental focus as the operative force in magical practice.
- Bridging theory and practice: Combined readable philosophical exposition with concrete ritual and visualization instruction.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: Hermeticism and Neoplatonism; the ceremonial magic tradition; the etheric/astral-light model of subtle reality.
- Influenced: the 1970s magical-revival readership; the practical-magic self-instruction tradition.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Magic: An Occult Primer1972
- The Magic of Herbs1973