Over the past year the Keepers have seen a number of offers circulating that use the name of the Order of the Serpent. They take several forms: paid "initiation into the Order," certificates of rank in the Seven Coils, "inner documents" or "unpublished teachings" available for a fee, and personal instruction from people describing themselves as officers, priests, or senior members of the Order.
None of these offers comes from the Order. None of them could.
What the Order Does Not Have
- Degrees. The Order confers no degrees or ranks of any kind. The Seven Coils are a map of self-initiation, not a ladder of grades. A coil is recognized by the practitioner who is in it, and no one can confer one, certify one, or sell one.
- Certificates. The Order issues no certificates, cards, or documents of membership, because it has no membership.
- Secret documents. The Order keeps no secret teaching. Everything it teaches is in the Library, free. There are no unpublished teachings to buy.
- Officers or representatives. The Order has no leaders, priests, officers, or authorized teachers. The Keepers of the Library maintain this site and its texts, and that is all they do. No Keeper offers instruction, and no Keeper speaks for the Order outside this site.
- Prices. The Order charges no one for anything. It has no bank account and accepts no money.
If You Have Paid
If you have paid someone for initiation into the Order, for a certificate, or for secret teachings, you have been deceived. We are sorry. We cannot refund you, because we never received anything, and we cannot pursue the people responsible, because the Order has no apparatus for doing so. You may wish to report the matter to the appropriate authorities where you live.
What you paid for is available here, in full, for nothing. It always was.
A Note on Lawful Sale
This warning should not be confused with something entirely legitimate. Because our texts are in the public domain, anyone may print and sell copies of them, and some people do. That is permitted and, frankly, welcome. A printed copy of The Shed Skin sold honestly as a printed copy is no different from any other book.
What crosses the line is selling something the Order does not have: rank, recognition, authority, or secrets. Buying a copy of one of our texts confers nothing, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not telling you the truth. Our Statements of Position set this out in full.