SYMBOLICAL SYNONYMS OF SOLOMON'S SEAL: THE CRESCENT AND STAR

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The graphic here is from Secrets of the Eastern Star by Cathy Burns. She notes how the Crescent and Star is used not only by Freemasonry's Eastern Star organization but also by neo-pagans and witches, who recognize the ideograph as symbolic of opposite principles in nature, e.g., male and female, active and passive, good and evil, etc. Thus, in the occult world, the Crescent and Star is but one among many symbolical synonyms of the Seal of Solomon, because it signifies occult dualism, which holds that good and evil must be polarized into equalibrium, i.e., balenced in harmonious juxtaposing stability as two eternal, mutually dependent, and complementary aspects of nature and of nature's god. In other words, the Crescent and Star represents Lucifer (the male apsect of the androgynous occult god-head) and Diana (the female aspect of the same).

This occult dualism was recently communicated to the mass mind by the movie trilogy Star Wars, where, according to Yoda in Revenge of the Sith, the dark and light side of The Force must be harmonized. In contrast, according to the traditional Christian paradigm, the purpose of spiritual combat is not to balence good and evil but to ultimately overcome evil with good. Thus the Christian eschatology is essencially linear, pointing to an end-time when evil will be utterly extirpated, whereas the occult eschatology is circular, an eternal recurrance, where the end is contained in the beginning and evil is endlessly harmonized or recalibrated to equalize with good.

According to J.S.M. Ward, the Freemason who authored The Signs and Symbols of Freemasonry, the crescent, which is pictured on the cover of that book, figures prominently in the mystery religions as the symbol of the godess Dianna, i.e., Isis in Egyptian lore. Ward:

"In like manner the sign of the horns, which is still used by superstitious people, particularly in Italy, to avert the evil eye, seems undoubtedly to be descended from Classical times and relates to the crescent moon of Diana." (J. S. M. Ward, Signs & Symbols of Freemasonry, Land's End Press, NY, 1969, page 3)

Albert Pike, one of Freemasonry's greatest human icons, wrote in his book Morals and Dogma how, in contrast, the five pointed star, or Blazing Star, which figures prominently on many Masonic lodge floors, signifies the male god Osiris, i.e., the sun god of Egyptian mythology. Mackey confirms:

"Blazing Star. The blazing star constitutes one of the ornaments of the lodge...Dr. Hemming quoted by Oliver, says that it refers to the sun, which enlightens the earth with its reflugent rays, dispersing blessings to mankind at large, and giving light and life to all things here below.'" (Lexicon of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey, Barnes and Noble, NY, page 53)

Thus, to use the qabbalistic terminology of the 19th Century Freemason and sorceror Eliphas Levi, the Crescent and Star, like all symbolic synonyms of Solomon's Seal, including the Hammer and Sickle, represents the Black-White Jehovah, i.e., the god of reflections (Black Jehovah), as signified by the crescent moon, and the god of light (White Jehovah), as signified by the five pointed star.

As can be seen from the Masonic fez cap pictured here, the Crescent and Star is also used in Judeo-Freemasonry by the Shriners and is recognized in Masonry as the symbol of Islam. Since, according to the Masonic paradigm, Islam -- and indeed all religions -- supposedly worship the same God as Masonry, albiet under different rubrics, Allah is T.G.A.O.U., i.e., The Grand Architect of Freemasonry, who is said to be worshiped, unknowingly, by the Muslim world under a different name. No doubt, adept Freemasons would point to the dual nature of Islam's Crescent and Star ideograph as symbolical corroboration of their occult wordview.

The Masonic boy's club, the Demolays, to which President Clinton, Walt Disney, and other noteworthy personages belonged, also uses the Crescent and star, as pictured here.