ORDER OF THE STAR IN THE EAST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 73, 23 February 1918, Page 2

ORDER OF THE STAR IN THE EAST.

A lecture entitled the Mystic Star was given last night in the Medina Tea Rooms by Miss C. W. Christie, the travelling organiser for the Order. The live-pointed star is the badge of the Order and said the lecturer, as there is so much superstition to-day about such things as badges, talismans, macottes, etc. I will try to show the true meaning of the star and also its value at a talisman or mascotte. It is fashionable to-day to scoff at those things and avow wo do not believe in them, yet most people are uneasy if they lose their In-dry coin, their badge, or their mascotte, and they have very little knowledge of the reason for choosing such forms as the cross, the star, the swastika or the triangle as a charm, and have given up thinking about it. Tins careless thinking, joined to an uneasy half-belief in the power of these tilings is superstition. Superstition and ignorance go hand in hand; knowledge kills both. Force—the force (f God working in, through, and with matter, runs in certain given directions, and moves matter into lines and complex form; thus in the mineral,

vegetable and animal kingdom God geometrises, and on higher planes these lines of force make of subtle matter ail these we know as stars, crosses, etc. and each form so made ? is a centre of force and a protection to those who wear and understand it. The five-pointed star symbolises the human body, the head upwards, the arms outstretched, the feet freed for

service to God and to humanity. It typifies the escape of the son! . from the animal form, and its entrance into the human kingdom. 11. His escape from the'merely human into the kingdom of Heaven—the first great initiation. Hi. The perfection readied at the sth initiation, that of the Adept— Ihe perfected man. The oldest symbol of religion is the circle which later on was developed into the wheel of births and deaths of old Eastern religions. Next the cross within the circle, the cross—the man with bend

upright and arms extended, but • feet fixed in (.he earth the point of fiercest s l ra;frde between mailer and spirit—the spirit crucified in the flesh or matter. The star is the symbol of the spirit liberated from matter, the star of initiation which shines ever in the East above the portal of initiation.

The lecturer then described the effect of ritual and ceremonial in the Lodges of secret societies which in various forms depicted the mysteries or drama of the soul, and when performed by men and women of pure life ancT'Concentratod thought, and a knowledge of the power flowing through these various forms. This is knowledge, not superstition. “I have seen it work,” said the speaker, “so I know that God Geometrises. We have seen His star in the East.” May ours reflect its light.