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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 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:

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. He is an initiate of both Ordo Templi Orientis and the Illuminates of Thanateros.

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

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ramsey Dukes", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0