Lionel Snell

Ramsey Dukes is the current and most well-known pen name of Lionel Snell, a contemporary English magician, publisher and author on magic and philosophy. He has also under the pen names Lemuel Johnston. Angerford and Lea, Adamai Philotunus and Per Anum Ad Astra. His regular satirical column The Satanist's Diary was published in the magazine Aquarian Arrow during the 1980s and early 1990s under the pen name The Hon Hugo C StJ l'Estrange and included a multitude of other pen names as contributors.

Born April 1945 in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire before his family moved to the Gloucestershire Cotswolds that year. In his youth, Snell enjoyed a series of scholarships that brought him to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated in Pure Mathematics. His writings on Austin Osman Spare in Agape Occult Review (1972) and his magical theories published in SSOTBME - An Essay on Magic (1974) and Thundersqueak (1978) brought him into contact with the nascent chaos magic movement in the 1970s. This comparatively rigorous and modern style of magic, largely shaped by fellow scientist Peter Carroll, provided a fertile ground for his own ideas.

In 1977, he performed a well-known, but notably laborious and rarely attempted ritual called the Abramelin operation.

Since 1972 he has written and published several books noted for their impact on late 20th-century magic and humor. Words Made Flesh (1987) was 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.

Dukes has worked on the subject of magic with diverse associates including the Ordo Templi Orientis and Illuminates of Thanateros.

Works include:

• SSOTMBE: An Essay on Magic, Its Foundations, Development and Place in Modern Life
  • 1st edition: Mouse That Spins, 1975. ISBN 0904311015
  • Hardcover: Turner, 1979. ISBN 0904311090
• SSOTMBE Revised: An Essay on Magic. Mouse That Spins, 2002. ISBN 0904311082
• Thundersqueak, with Liz Angerford and Ambrose Lee. Mouse That Spins. ISBN 0904311120 (3rd rev. ed., 2003)
• Words Made Flesh, Mouse That Spins. ISBN 0904311112 (2nd rev. ed., 2003)
• BLAST Your Way to Megabuck$ with my SECRET Sex-Power Formula. Mouse That Spins. ISBN 0904311139 (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 0904311104
• What I Did in My Holidays: Essays on Black Magic, Satanism, Devil Worship and Other Niceties. Mandrake Press Ltd, 1999. ISBN 1869928520
• Uncle Ramsey's Little Book of Demons: The Positive Advantages of the Personification of Life's Problems. Aeon Books, 2005. ISBN 1904658091
• "How to See Fairies: Discover your Psychic Powers in Six Weeks". Aeon Books, 2011. ISBN 9781904658375
• Hellgate Chronicles