[dzandiloo]

I am also a majority member - Rainbow Girl, and I am really enjoying this topic. Rainbow may very well be the least mystifying of the Masonic organizations. The Installation of officers ritual is open to all who are invited, and the rules regarding the Initiation ceremony were changed about 10 years ago, (which was previously closed to all but duly initiated members of Masonic organizations) to allow the non-masonic parents of the initiates to attend. We had 2 Catholic girls in our group--their parents were Masons/Eastern Stars.

Rainbow truly changed my life, and renewed my faith in God and people in general. My grandparents were members of the Masons/Eastern Stars but left long before they died. Which leads me to my biggest beef about the OES--because I am not related to a Mason in good standing, I could not become a member of the OES. I'm sure they have their reasons, but it seems to me that they are unnecessarily limiting themselves in this day and age (My father believes all Masons are members of the Klan...and used to rag me regularly when I had Rainbow functions).

Oh well--so I throw myself into DZ. Rainbow seems to be dying, which makes me sad b/c I know how wonderful it was to be a member.

BTW-The Achoth Sorority was founded in 1910--meant for women affiliated with the OES--their symbols were all OES related, so it's possible their ritual was OES related. Achoth became Phi Omega Pi--joined NPC and dropped the masonic affiliation in 1933. Phi Omega Pi later merged into Delta Zeta.