Lionel Snell Explained

Lionel Snell
Birth Place:Kings Langley, England
Alma Mater:Cambridge University
Era:Contemporary philosophy
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Main Interests:Magical thinking
Virtual reality
Notable Ideas:Johnstone's paradox

Lionel Snell is an English writer, magician, and publisher. He has released numerous works on the subjects of magic and philosophy under various pen names, and is most famously known as Ramsey Dukes. He has been described as "an important early contributor to the discussions of occultism in the mid- to late 1970s".

Career

In his youth, Snell received a series of scholarships which eventually allowed him to attend Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in Pure Mathematics.

His writings on the English artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare in Agape Occult Review (1972), and his philosophical theories published in SSOTBME: An Essay on Magic (1974) brought him into contact with the nascent chaos magic movement of the 1970s. Snell was active within this environment for most of the 1970s to the 1980s.

The novel approach to magic which he developed during this period has been described as synthesizing "the works of Crowley, Spare and Carlos Casteneda into a form of magical libertarianism." Due to his contribution in this area, Snell is often regarded as an important figure in the historical emergence of the chaos magic current.

As well as being a theorist of magic, Snell has also been an avid practitioner. In 1977, he claimed to have performed a well-known, but notably laborious and rarely attempted ritual called the Abramelin operation. Later, he engaged with occultist organisations such as Ordo Templi Orientis and Illuminates of Thanateros.

Since 2015, Snell has been running a YouTube channel, which has over a quarter million views as of July 2022.

Philosophical works

Words made Flesh

Snell’s book Words Made Flesh (1987) takes a philosophical approach to the nature of reality. In this work, Snell outlines his “information model” theory of magic, which entertains the possibility that the universe could be a virtual reality. According to Steve Collins, this theme was later explored in popular culture through films such as The Matrix.

Partial bibliography

Works include:

References

Works cited

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