Ramsey Dukes

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Ramsey Dukes is the current and best-known pen name of Lionel Snell, a contemporary magician, publisher and author on magick and philosophy. He has also written under the pen names Lemuel Johnston and Angerford & Lea.

In his youth, Snell enjoyed a series of scholarships. They brought him to Cambridge, where his writings on Austin Osman Spare and magical theory brought him into contact with the young chaos magic movement in the 1970s. He had been interested in the occult before, but this comparatively rigorous and modern style of it, largely shaped by fellow scientist Peter J. Carroll, drew his special attention.

His first well-known writings were a series of articles in the magazine Aquarian Arrow collectively entitled The Hellgate Chronicles, written under the pen name of the Honourable Hugo L'Estrange, a pastiche of the Dennis Wheatley style of fictional aristocratic Satanism made famous by Hammer horror movies.

Since 1972 he has written and published several books noted for their impact on late 20th century magick and humor. The ones most often referred to may be SSOTBME - An Essay on Magic (1974) and Thundersqueak (1978). Dukes writes:^[1]

In SSOTBME I suggested that the surest way to map out human culture was by using a compass with four directions: Art, Science, Religion and Magic. I suggested that to ignore or deny Magic was a bit like denying the existence of a hole in the road - it simply increased the chance of falling into it.

Words Made Flesh (1987) is written from a more philosophical point of view and notable for its original outline of the "information model" theory of magic that our universe could be a virtual reality—as later explored in The Matrix. It is an example of the author's ongoing studies in the relationship between magic and rationalism.

Snell has made the claim that in 1977 he performed a ritual called the Abramelin operation.^[2] He has worked on the subject of magic with diverse associates including Ordo Templi Orientis and the Illuminates of Thanateros.^[2]

In more recent years Snell has become part of the faculty of Arcanorium College.

[edit] Partial bibliography

Works include:

• SSOTMBE: An Essay on Magic, Its Foundations, Development and Place in Modern Life
  • 1st edition: Mouse That Spins, 1975. ISBN 0-904311-01-5
  • Hardcover: Turner, 1979. ISBN 0-904311-09-0
• SSOTBME Revised: An Essay on Magic. Mouse That Spins, 2002. ISBN 0-904311-08-2
• Thundersqueak, with Liz Angerford and Ambrose Lea. Mouse That Spins. ISBN 0-904311-12-0 (3rd rev. ed., 2003)
• Words Made Flesh, Mouse That Spins. ISBN 0-904311-11-2 (2nd rev. ed., 2003)
• BLAST Your Way to Megabuck$ with my SECRET Sex-Power Formula. Mouse That Spins. ISBN 0-904311-13-9 (2nd rev. ed., 2003)
  • BLAST... has been published in German as Zaster-Blaster, Zapp Dir den Weg zum GiGaGeld mit meiner GEHEIMEN SEX-KRAFT-FORMEL.
• The Good, the Bad & the Funny, with Adamai Philotunus. Mouse That Spins, 2002. ISBN 0-904311-10-4
• What I Did in My Holidays: Essays on Black Magic, Satanism, Devil Worship and Other Niceties. Mandrake of Oxford, 1999. ISBN 1-869928-52-0
• Uncle Ramsey's Little Book of Demons: The Positive Advantages of the Personification of Life's Problems. Aeon Books, 2005. ISBN 1-904658-09-1
• Dukes is one of 23 contributing authors to Liber Malorum, edited by Sean Scullion, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9557984-0-5.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Ramsey Dukes' essay series
• "Arcanorium College". http://www.arcanoriumcollege.com/. Retrieved on 2009-05-29.