Brotherhood of the Snake

The Brotherhood of the Snake or Brotherhood of the Serpent is a supposedly ancient secret society, linked in with a varied of other myths including extraterrestrials controlling human affairs, ancient astronauts, ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythology, theories about the secret meanings of the Pyramids, alleged pre-Jewish motifs in the Bible, and up to Rosicrucianism, the Knights Templar, freemasonry, and the Illuminati of Adam Weishaupt. That's quite a long list, but the Brotherhood of the Snake functions as a kind of grand unified conspiracy theory linking almost everything in a long lineage of secret history from the ancient Middle East through the Egyptians and every secret society you've heard of (or not heard of, if they're really secret), possibly right up to our current reptilian overlords (including Barack Obama). All of this is chronicled in a variety of untrustworthy but grandiose books by the likes of William Bramley,  (aka Jan van Helsing), and Xaviant Haze, as well as many badly-designed websites.

Summary
A basic list of ingredients includes:
 * Founded in ancient Mesopotamia by (or An) and the secret knowledge he communicated to his son  (or Enki). Both were worshipped as gods in Sumerian, Akkadian, and other ancient Mesopotamian religion under various names. They are credited with founding the Brotherhood. Some versions say that they were aliens.
 * Snakes are important, and this is reflected by motifs such as the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve, which encodes a deeper truth. This possibly has something to do with Ea trying to free the human race with his secret snake knowledge.
 * Most versions seem to involve a defeat of the snake forces, possibly with Ea/Enki being defeated himself and his knowledge lost (hypothetically reflected in the Biblical story of God striking down Satan after the latter's attempt to educate Adam and Eve), or the defeat of ancient Egyptian polytheism by This may be introduced to explain why we're not overtly ruled by snake overlords, or merely to add some narrative interest.
 * This snake is linked with Satan, who may be identified with Ea or Enki, and the religion of Satanism, which embodies hidden truths.
 * The ancient Egyptian Pharaohs were aliens, or space travellers or wannabe travellers who built their pyramids for mythical purposes. These are connected to alleged pyramids on Mars and other astronomical bodies, possibly for navigation.
 * This ancient teaching was passed up through history through a variety of secret brotherhoods such as Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, and the Illuminati.
 * They're still around, probably doing something involving the Rothschilds, the international Jewish conspiracy, Freemasons, or lizard people walking among us.
 * Snake symbolism can be found everywhere, indicating the influence of the Brotherhood. Obviously in the caduceus or staff of Hermes used as an emblem of physicians, but also in many other places (e.g. "Rx" on prescription bottles means "Rex" which links to the Eye of Horus which is a symbol of the Brotherhood of the Snake.)

One difference between versions is whether the snake-aliens should be revered as bringers of profound truth (like Satan in the Bible), or whether they are evil reptilian overlords intent on enslaving the human race (like Satan in the Bible). These different versions are explored below.

Proponents
Its prehistory includes various snake cults such as the gnostic Ophites, who were called the Brotherhood of the Serpent in Helena Blavatsky's classic theosophical text Secret Doctrine (1888). Not much is known about the Ophites, but they appear to have worshipped a snake instead of Jesus or believing it to be Jesus; they don't seem to have done anything in terms of setting up a millennia-long conspiracy. Blavatsky added her own interpretation, linking the Ophites with the idea that the Serpent in the Garden of Eden had tried to communicate mystical knowledge to Adam and Eve.

Peter Tompkins in Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids (1987) mentions an extraterrestrial "Brotherhood of the Serpent" as living among the Mayans in pre-Columbian Central America. But the theory appears to have largely originated in William Bramley's The Gods of Eden (1989), which is widely cited as one of the chief sources by later proponents. He believes the Brotherhood is formed of aliens played a sinister role in shaping human history, from the ancient astronauts who intervened at the dawn of civilisation to contemporary alien abductions and experiments, treating humans as no more than livestock. Reportedly his theories began as a way to explain why human beings, seemingly decent, spiritual creatures, are perpetually caught up in war, conflict, and atrocities — the answer must be alien manipulation. He isn't entirely clear on the motivations of the small gray aliens involved, suggesting it's partly to enslave the human race and partly to keep "souls imprisoned in this universe" and prevent our spiritual growth. He also claims that the aliens have used threats such as communism and Islam to keep the human race in conflict; Bramley suggested that aliens inserted apocalyptic warnings into religions for similar reasons, to cause strife and disorder. Bramley appeared on Coast to Coast AM on May 27, 2004 to outline his ideas.

Michael Tellinger has discussed in Slave Species of the Gods (2005) how most human civilisation and history is related to aliens called the Anunnaki who want our gold. His work claims to draw on Zecharia Sitchin's ideas to suggest that the human race was engineered by aliens rather than evolving naturally. Bizarrely, he also claims that the Anunnaki established a civilization in southern Africa around 200,000 years ago; he also links this to ideas that we can realise the potential of our alien DNA and do cool shit.

David Icke is another other proponents of the theory, in The Biggest Secret (1999).

Jan Udo Holey aka Jan van Helsing, who claimed Hitler lived in Antarctica after World War Two, and whose books have been banned in Europe for antisemitism is yet another fan; Holey chose his pseudonym because (according to skeptic Jason Colavito) "van Helsing believed Jews were bloodsuckers who used the Brotherhood of the Snake to control the world". His book Secret Societies (1993) links aliens with secret Nazi technology; van Helsing suggests the aliens formed the cult as early as 300,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

Xaviant Haze goes all out. The Brotherhood's secretive rule in ancient Egypt was ended by Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), who in history is known for ending polytheism and worshipping a single god, the sun-god Aten. Oh, and Barack Obama is his clone: Obama had the Sun as his logo, Akhenaten worshipped the sun, QED. Although to some people this suggests that Obama is a reptilian — and it explains why Obama instituted a ban on human cloning.

Problems
There are many obvious problems with this, over and above the patent nonsense (aliens? Did nobody notice?). One is that the supposed ancient secret societies that received the secret knowledge didn't exist until the last 1000 years, leaving a big gap for all the secrets to be lost between the pyramids being built (the main period was around 2700-2400 BCE, with a revival 2000-1700 BCE that may or may not have been an unconnected imitation) and the foundation of the Knights Templar in 1119 CE or Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry around the 17th-18th century CE. You would have to have a secret Brotherhood of the Snake existing in total secrecy for millennia.

Jason Colavito says of Bramley's introduction of the Brotherhood: "Note that there is no evidence whatsoever presented for the group’s existence. The group is presented as an assertion in the first sentence, given a name without a source in the third, and only then is evidence marshaled to support the supposition — but this evidence, the Bible and Egyptian texts, says nothing about any brotherhood of the snake. Instead, these are mere mentions of snakes that Bramley has chosen to interpret as evidence of a unified snake cult. In other words, this is nothing but circular reasoning."

There is plenty of evidence of people worshipping snakes and other people fearing snakes: they're often dangerous, often big, and research suggests humans may have an innate fear of them. But there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any Brotherhood of the Snake, and even if we uncovered proof that human history has been controlled by a secret conspiracy for over 5000 years, it would be many more crazy steps of extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary evidence before there would be the slightest possibility that the Brotherhood of the Snake theories are true.

Cultural influence
An obscure 1916 novel, The Boy Settler by adventure story writer mentions a fictional Brotherhood of the Snake.

Carmen Caine and Madison Adler's Glass Wall series of young adult fantasy novels seem to feature elements of the myth; book 2 was called The Brotherhood of the Snake (2012): "What if humans were more powerful than they thought? What if an alien race had a reason to keep humanity entrenched in fear? And what if ancient beings that we've met before were still trying to protect us? And just what if the fate of Earth depended upon an average 17-year-old girl with a few secrets of her own?"

American metal band Testament released a 2016 album called It has a very scary snake on the cover.