Ramsey Dukes has become my favourite author. This four hundred page collection of essays is even better than his last book.

Dukes employs shock-value humour and intelligent scholarly presentation techniques to de-mystify these subjects in a rational and eloquent exploration of 21st century realities for a general, i.e. non-Pagan, audience. If you are expecting this to be an hysterical pro-Satan how to" book, you will be deeply disappointed.

Dukes analyses the anthropology of religious belief, breaking it down into three generational catagories: The Age of Isis (absolute, to-the-letter belief), The Age of Osiris (role-model emulation) and The Age of Horus (think for yourself and make your own decisions). The 21st century is on the cusp of the Horus Age, although fundamentalist Christians and Muslims are still stuck in the Isis Age.

The concepts of Satanists and "devil worshippers" are largely the creation of fundamentalist backlash against non-fluffy, non-NewAge "pagans". Most of us who practise a polarised (both dark and light) Pagan Path do not indulge in human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, or child molestation. It is Christians who eat their God albeit in the forms of bread and wine, grant soldiers dispensations for committing murder on the battlefield, sacrifice millions of innocent turkeys every Christmas, and have priests and vicars who end up in prison for sexually abusing children.

There may be rare instances of self-proclaimed pagans who go off the rails into the realms of "Satanic" crime, but it is Christianity which provides them with the templates against which they act out these extremes of rebellion. There may be a few bad apples in the overall crop, but by and large, Pagans who practise self-empowerment are simply testing the personal applications of principles accepted by modern science. Pagans see the coin. Christians see the two opposing faces.

Dukes wrote: "Christianity is already divided, there is no point in uniting it against a common enemy - namely us". In other words, wasting your time and energy to bait Christians only scores points for them against us.

The bottom line is that "Magic is more concerned with ruling over power than being ruled by it". The so-called Satanic pentacle has the binary points at the top to emphasise polarity rising out of unity in cosmic iteration; it does not represent a sigil for the horns of a demon unless you have something against the Laws of Physics.

Dukes is also an expert on Artificial Intelligence and other facets of computer science. His elegant essays on the sociological ramifications of technology, based on extensive knowledge of how that technology works, are the finest presentations on this subject that I have yet encountered. He has inspired a chapter of my own forthcoming book on science-based Witchcraft, which is the highest compliament I can give to another author.

I still cannot fathom why Ramsey Dukes' books aren't on the bestseller lists. Perhaps common sense instead of negative tabloid hype isn't something the mainstream is prepared to support. May this change and soon! - Review by Cerridwen Connelly

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