Episode 141: Actual Magic: On Ramsey Dukes' SSOTBME

Ramsey Dukes, also known by his real name of Lionel Snell, may be one of the most important thinkers on magic since Aleister Crowley. In the impishly-titled Sex Secrets of the Black Magicians Exposed (or SSOTBME for short), Dukes accomplishes something few writers on the topic have been able to do: he gives us magic without asking us to sacrifice anything that makes us sensible modern people. He makes magic seem like the most obvious thing in the world, and he does it without taking away any of its, well, magic. How he does it and what it means are questions that would take several episodes to unpack. In this one, Phil and JF begin the work by discussing how Dukes situates magic in an epistemic compass that also includes science, art, and religion. This set of tools is as essential to a holistic view of reality as the four suits in a deck of cards are essential to a proper poker game. In other words, when we lose magic, we lose a way of dealing with reality.

Sign up for JF's upcoming course on Macbeth

Support us on Patreon and gain access to Phil's ongoing podcast on Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel

Find us on Discord

Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau!

Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.)

Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop

REFERENCES

David Lynch (dir.), Mulholland Drive

Ramsey Dukes, SSOTBME

Slavoj Žižek, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema

C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures

Weird Studies, Episode 139 on Art Power

Marshall McLuhan, Gutenberg Galaxy

“Virtual” and “Actual”, as developed by Bergson and Deleuze

Pragmatism, philosophical school

Jack Parsons, American rocket scientist

Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return

William Shakespeare, Macbeth