tina and again behind Steiner? This remains a mystery, not only to
the outside world but to the "initiates" themselves. The quest of the
Hidden Chiefs, undertaken by one intrepid pilgrim after another, seems
to have ended only in further meetings with Steiner. Yet hope springs
eternal in the breast of the aspirant after occult knowledge, and astral
messages spurred the Fratres to further efforts. One of these contained
the exhortation: "Go on with Steiner, which is not the ultimate end of
search, and we will come into contact with many serious students who
will lead us to the real master of the Order, who will be so
overpoweringly impressive as to leave no room for doubt."

A curious analogy with Co-Masonry will here be observed. For whilst the
veiled picture of the Co-Masonic lodges is said to represent "the
Master" in the person of Ragocsky or some other personage in Austria or
Hungary, so it is likewise in Austria and Germany that the members of
Stella Matutina seek their Hidden Chiefs and the "real Master" of their
Order. Moreover, whilst the Co-Masons await the coming of the great
"World Teacher," King, or Messiah in 1926, it is also in 1926 that the
Stella Matutina expect Christian Rosenkreutz to appear again.[726] There
are many other points of resemblance between the phraseology of the two
Orders, as, for example, the idea of the "Astral Light," "the Great
White Lodge," and also "the GREAT WORK" by which both Orders denote the
supreme object of their aspirations--"the union of the East and the
West." It is therefore impossible not to suspect that, although the
members of Co-Masonry and of the Stella Matutina imagine their
respective Orders to be entirely unconnected and indeed appear to be
hardly aware of each other's existence, there may be nevertheless some
point of junction in the background and even a common centre of
direction.

In this connexion it is interesting to notice the political tendencies
of the societies in question. Although the outcome of the _Maconnerie
Mixte_, and nominally under the jurisdiction of headquarters in Paris,
Co-Masonry does not appear to be pro-French in its sympathies. On the
contrary, the Co-masonic lodges in this country, as also the head lodge
in the Rue Jules-Breton, seem to have adopted that form of universal
brotherhood which principally redounds to the benefit of Germany.

The Stella Matutina, whilst professing to be solely concerned in occult
science and warning its m