Excerpts from "Masonry, Beyond the Light" by William Schnoebelen

Next to Freemasonry itself, our ministry is most questioned about the Order of the Eastern Star (OES), the "Star" as it is fondly called.

The OES was founded in 1868 as a women's auxiliary for the Lodge. It is open to all female relatives of Masons, and functions under the authority of the Lodge. A Master Mason, called the Worthy Patron MUST be present at all Star meetings. There is also another Mason, an Associate Patron, usually present. Otherwise, all the offices are held by women.

To ask what the Star does is a bit like asking what a Lodge does. The easy answer is: Not much. However, the Star does what little it does with a tremendous amount of pomp and ceremony.

Star meetings, like Lodge meetings, consist of opening the meeting with much waving of rods and banners and the singing of hymns. The officers ritually declare their stations and functions and Grand Chapter officers are introduced and honored with tedious predictability. This can easily kill a half hour to forty-five minutes.

Then, minutes are read, sick members are mentioned and any items of mundane business transacted, much like any other club. If members are to be initiated, that is done, and that can take at least an hour.

Then the chapter is solemnly closed, with a lot more ceremonial ado, followed by a social hour. Ultimately, the chief function of a Star chapter, like a Lodge, is to make more members! Everything else is secondary to that.

The Star is regarded by Masonic women as a fine Christian institution within Masonry.

Classics like How Great Thou Art are sung. The motto of the chapter is right out of the Bible: "We have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him'" (Matthew 2:2).

Sadly, one of the key strategies a cult uses is to play upon the common interpretation of words. Dealing with any cult involves getting through a jungle of definitions.

The cult will use words which have common meanings, like "Jesus" or "saved," or well known Bible verses, but will carefully not explain to potential members that they have applied a subtext to these terms, a second layer of meaning!

This is the problem with the OES. The people who put the order together back in the 19th century relied upon the familiarity with Matthew 2:2 as a common "Christmas verse." However, in light of the satanic symbolism involved in the OES, we need to look for another layer of meaning applied to that verse of scripture.

The A.V. 1611 text does not say "eastern star." It says "star in the east." The phrase "Eastern Star" has a specialized meaning in occultism.

It refers to the star, Sirius, which is the most significant star in Satanism! It is sacred to the god, Set. Remember Set as the evil Egyptian god who killed Osiris? Set is probably the oldest form of Satan! The Eastern Star is the star of Set.

However, deadly word games are being played here. Though most women involved in the OES doubtlessly assume they are worshiping Jesus as they kneel around a huge satanic pentagram, it is obvious that the "his" actually refers to Set's star, not Jesus' star.

In Albert Pike's commentary on this degree, we find the usual duplicity found elsewhere in the Lodge. He explains:

"To find in the BLAZING STAR of five points an allusion to Divine Providence is fanciful; and to make it commemorative of the Star that is said to have guided the Magi, is to give it a meaning comparatively modern. Originally, it represented Sirius, or the Dog-star, the forerunner of the inundation of the Nile…"

Pike readily casts aside the bland lie of the degree and confirms that the blazing star is neither Divine Providence, nor is it Jesus' "star in the east." It is an Egyptian idol, the symbol of Sirius!

There is another critical problem in the Star—a reason why no Christian woman would wish to be a part of this organization.

Set (Lucifer) is the acknowledged god of Masonry. Thus, what does it mean for a Christian woman to be adopted into the Star? She is submitting herself to the spiritual authority of Lucifer.

She may not know it, but in bowing before the altar of the Star, the inverted pentagram of Baphomet, she has surrendered herself (however innocently) to the gods of Masonry. That WILL give Satan an entry point into her life, no matter how devout a Christian she may be.