# Eastern Star



## Blake Bowden (Dec 3, 2008)

Are you...


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## Texas_Justice85 (Dec 3, 2008)

the lady that does the breakfast at the hotel I work for is the worthy matron at the Waco chapter and keeps bugging me to get involved when i get my MM. I been to a couple of their dinners and theyre really nice people, just not for me


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## JTM (Dec 3, 2008)

i'll get in when i'm married, and only if my wife wants to.


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## jonesvilletexas (Dec 3, 2008)

Well, that is not true, I was in the 80's but when I had health problems and had to stop going to lodge I let is slide. But I will be going back I hope soon. It is a great org.


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## owls84 (Dec 3, 2008)

I just don't think I will be Eastern Star. I guess my thing is I don't want to become a member and never help. With Blue Lodge and my intentions are Scottish Rite and York Rite I just dont see me having the time for Eastern Star but that may change.


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## TCShelton (Dec 3, 2008)

Not this guy...


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## TexMass (Dec 3, 2008)

Last year at my installation my wife put on an incredible spread.  I had just come back from TX and brought 14 frozen pre-cooked, smoked briskets from HEB.  These guys up here had NEVER had bar-b-que like this.  It is still talked about today.  They couldn't believe that this came from a grocery store.  At the dinner she was cornered by several ladies from 'star.  She was really turned off by the pressure and said she would never join.  This is not to fault the orginization.  It was just the wrong approach at the wrong time.


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## js4253 (Dec 17, 2008)

I joined with my wife but I am not active because it conflicts with Lodge meeting.


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## rhitland (Dec 17, 2008)

The Eastern Star is a phenominal organization but never have I ever heard of The Star refered to as a great place to learn something about Masonry, if anyone says anything about the Star it has nothing to do with the degrees or how amazing the ritual is. I know the Star was concieved by a Brother not to long ago but I can't see the rituals being anything like ours. 
When I was getting ready to join I read this amongst many other little snippets that kinda turned my wife and I off of it personally.
_The fraternal order is comprised of people with deep religious convictions and spiritual values open to all faiths except no faith._ 
I still know way to little to make any judgments b/c if there is a ritual involved I want to go through bearing my moral compass is in inline with it's teachings.


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## jwardl (Dec 17, 2008)

I'd told my wife over & over what the lodge was doing for me, and told her of the Star, hoping she would reap some of the same benefits. She was intrigued and decided to join, also partly as a way to share the masonic experience and a weekday evening out, doing something for others as well as ourselves.

Unfortunately, she hasn't been as impressed as she'd hoped, because she's done nothing but attend meetings she finds mostly boring, not being one who cares for ritual. Our chapter meets only once a month, and though a few sisters have promised to call her for months, they never do. She wants to get involved with helping others, assisting with fund-raising and comforting the unfortunate, but she seems to be getting nowhere with that. Since I joined primarily with/for her, I'll probably drop out if she does. Am trying to get her to visit other chapters to see if they are more to her liking and/or to be mre aggressive about voicing her desires in the home chapter. Time will tell.


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## Blake Bowden (Dec 18, 2008)

Nothing against the OES, but it's not something that I'll pursue.


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## Joey (Dec 18, 2008)

Well, I'll go ahead and spill the beans now....... *I'm getting engaged in about 2 weeks.....* My future wife and I have discussed the Lodge and the Eastern Star...... She's willing to join as long as I'm a member too...... I've got mixed feelings about that.....


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## cmoreno85tx (Dec 19, 2008)

Joey said:


> Well, I'll go ahead and spill the beans now....... *I'm getting engaged in about 2 weeks.....* My future wife and I have discussed the Lodge and the Eastern Star...... She's willing to join as long as I'm a member too...... I've got mixed feelings about that.....




Congrats Brother Joey !!


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## Gerald.Harris (Dec 19, 2008)

I would recommend doing a bit of visiting and find that one chapter out there that is vibrant and exciting, then take back a few ides to your own chapter and see how your ideas are received. The beauty of all of Masonry, is that you can always move your membership.


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## TexMass (Dec 19, 2008)

Joey said:


> *I'm getting engaged in about 2 weeks.....*



You mean you haven't asked her yet?


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## caeservi (Dec 21, 2008)

at a recent awards ceremony at the lodge, me and my fiancee were approached about joining the star.  It was a real full court press; but she did seem interested, so we may end up joining after we are maried


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## nick1368 (Dec 21, 2008)

I have had Star petitions pushed on my since I got MM.  My wife's grandmother was a charter member of our local OES, however my wife as shown zero interest in joining.  I have no desire to join pettycoat lodge until she does...which i doubt will ever happen


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## tom268 (Feb 24, 2011)

The OES is almost nin-existent in Germany. I have heard, thate is one chapter (or how it is called) in Berlin, but I'm not sure. They surely have absolutely no appearance in the masonic landscape here. And I surely would never join such an organization.


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## Benton (Feb 24, 2011)

tom268 said:


> The OES is almost nin-existent in Germany. I have heard, thate is one chapter (or how it is called) in Berlin, but I'm not sure. They surely have absolutely no appearance in the masonic landscape here. And I surely would never join such an organization.


 
Just out of curiosity, why would you never join such an organization?


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## tom268 (Feb 24, 2011)

Well, my obligation includes, not to join any mason-like organizations. As it is neither an upper degree system, nor a masonic side degree or order, and it allows men in women in, it is a very very grey area of masonic law, in my eyes.


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## robert leachman (Feb 24, 2011)

No.  Wife want no part of it, based on bad experiences...I'll leave it at that.


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## Benton (Feb 24, 2011)

tom268 said:


> Well, my obligation includes, not to join any mason-like organizations. As it is neither an upper degree system, nor a masonic side degree or order, and it allows men in women in, it is a very very grey area of masonic law, in my eyes.


 
Very interesting.

The way it was originally set up here, a Master Mason had to be present for them to start their meetings. I don't know if that's any longer the case. But in the US, it was organized and created by US Masons for Masons and their wives, so there has never been anything shady about it. (To my knowledge. I'm not a member, so don't take me as an authority.)

I could see how it could cause problems in other jurisdictions, though. Good to hear your perspective.


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## Beathard (Feb 24, 2011)

The Worthy Patron invites the ladies into the lodge to start OES meetings. Therefore a mason is required to be in the meeting. The women run it though.


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## Benton (Feb 24, 2011)

Beathard said:


> The women run it though.



I think that was the most important part of that statement. Kind of a deeper truth in general, anyway.


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## tom268 (Feb 25, 2011)

Benton said:


> The way it was originally set up here, a Master Mason had to be present for them to start their meetings. I don't know if that's any longer the case. But in the US, it was organized and created by US Masons for Masons and their wives, so there has never been anything shady about it.


Well, I know, that it is a perfectly normal part of the masonic environment in the USA and in some other countries as well. But, especially the crossover does seem problematic for me. Not that a freemason must be present, but that he ist present as a freemason.
Every brother can be part of non-masonic organizations, chivalric orders, brotherhoods, social clubs, and, and, and. But he is always part as a member of that organization. Even if that org. requires him of being a mason, like the Shrine, Tall Cedars, or masonic groups, that can not confer degrees, all members are there, just because they are members, not "as masons".

I'm not sure, if I can express the difference, I want to point out here. Put it on my account, that English is a foreign language to me.

If the OES would be a "mixed-gender organization for masons and their wifes", and otherwise has nothing to do with the lodge, I would abstain from it by personal taste (no interest, lodge as it is, is enough for me), but would have less problems with its status.


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## Beathard (Feb 25, 2011)

The OES is a mixed-gender organization fir masons, their wives, widows, mothers, sisters and daughters.  Sons are not allowed unless they are masons themselves.


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## KSigMason (Jul 26, 2012)

I'm Associate Patron of my Chapter. I joined a few years back with my at the time girlfriend (we're still friends). A Past Matron asked me to move up with her this last January and I accepted. My Matron is old enough to be my grandmother, but she is entertaining to sit next to and she has a lot of knowledge.


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## Ashlar (Jul 31, 2012)

I was in , Past Worthy Patron many times over , but I am demitting out of everything but the Craft Lodge and the YR .


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