Eastern Star
The Order of the Eastern Star (OES) is a female companion organization to Freemasonry. Men who are Master Masons may also join. Their primary symbol in cemeteries is a five pointed star with a tip pointing down, representing the Star of Bethlehem. In the example at right the letters are FATAL, which stand for Fairest Among Ten-thousand, Altogether Lovely.
Photo: from the gravestone of Fred M. Moore (1878-1949) and Maria A. Moore (1879-1933), Littleton Cemetery, Littleton, Colorado
In the example below each symbol within the star is an emblem for the Biblical heroines Adah, Ruth, Esther, Martha and Electa, whose stories inspire character building lessons.
Photo: from the headstone of Hannah Meyer (1874-1930), Emanuel at Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colorado
November 19, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I have several items from my Grandmother’s Eastern Star days, however, one piece (a ring) only has three points. They are blue, green and white with a diamond in the middle. I can’t find any information on a three pointed star. Does anyone have any reference to that? Please email me at GiaMcFia2@aol.com
Thanks.
December 15, 2006 at 8:51 pm
As for the 3 pointed star, are there missing stones? Or is it just 3 points?
And FATAL is “fairest among thousands alltogether lovely.”
In all jurisdictions the white point is down, except for New York. Theirs is up and there are two ladies standing on either side of their star.
The 5 points are from the upper right and clockwise, Adah, Ruth, Esther, Martha, Electa.
December 20, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Do any of you know who Electa is? I have researched this like crazy and can not find anything about her. She IS NOT BIBLICAL. Thanks
January 15, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Electa is Biblical
May 8, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Electra is a character from ancient Greek mythology. It is not Biblical. An inverted pentegram is traditionally a sign of Baphomet, or Satan/Lucifer.
May 11, 2007 at 9:14 am
Her name is Electa, and she is BIBLICAL and in the bible you can find her in II John 1-13 she is call the “ELECT LADY” she is not from ancient greek mythology or an inverted pentegram or a sign og satan /lucifer. Ladies please do your home work!
July 17, 2007 at 10:27 pm
I have a 3 inch glass plate with the words eastern star & knights templar & the 5 pointed star in the middle. Why are these two groups on the same plate? are they connected in some way
July 21, 2007 at 6:33 pm
All of these questions are coming from prospects who are snooping not researching. Read the BIBLE, comprehend but lean not to your own understanding. Gain some knowledge and wisdom and come back with better questions. Then I’ll be happy to answer
August 9, 2007 at 11:15 pm
So…reading this post has made me laugh…
First off, the woman’s name is nowhere mentioned in Scripture. John’s writings contain the following phrase:
“Εκλεκτῃ Κυρια” (Westcott-Hort)
Eklecta Kuria (Greek, considering Chosen (Favored) and Kuria, femanine form of Kurio, for sir, master, lord. She is considered by some to have the name Kuria more over Electa (or Electra - which was a great movie)
I think the name is simply to a Patron in a local church setting, possibly a deaconess of sorts. She is considered high in esteem with the local congregation (church history records that this letter was sent to Ephesus by John (Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius) and nothing more.
To say her name was “Electa” is pure conjecture.
BTW, which Adah are we talking about here? One of the two wives of Lamech (Gen. 4:20, 23) or the wife of Esau, mother of Eliphaz? It’s pretty easy to find Martha, Ruth and Esther in our Bibles, but, most of the information that is attained and attributed to these women possibly comes from the Book of Jubilees, a book not regulated or regarded as Scripture. I do not see where someone makes the notion of “just read your Bibles - lean not on your own understanding”…we call this irony where I am from…considering sources that are extra-Biblical as role models, from a group that plates out the “Fatherhood of all men (universalism), and “God and the Bible can be found in all religious practices and communities” is just psychobable.
Eh. Just thoughts from a humble, country preacher.
Le’Shane
October 16, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Why does it matter WHOM these women were, as long as they meant, and DID well?
December 6, 2007 at 11:41 pm
The questions that you ask are not the right ones. To say it is conjuncture when we call her Electa is odd. Why would someone seek to understand a person and not name her as one. What is the REAL reason for your curiosity. If you do not have a name and we provide you with one, does that mean that we have dishonred you? Or does that mean that we have seeked to know you?
Electra may be Greek Mythology, but Electa is not.
When you read your Bible, find any character that you like. Pray that God annoints your heart and mind to understand why he would include these exerts in his book of direction that was left for us. Is it your own arrogance that has caused you to question God and why He would include certain stories and works?
So while you are trying to google an answer, try another search engine. It is called prayer.
December 12, 2007 at 2:25 pm
How can we find the truth if we do not ask questions? If there is doubt and arrogance in our hearts then let us not hide it but let us not flaunt it either. Lets be truthful with God about our doubts.
January 12, 2008 at 5:41 pm
It is conjecture. To call her the “elect lady,” and then anglicize this into a name is just conjecture. For example, the conjecture would be that her name was “Electa.” I’m not denying John calls her the “elect lady,” what I’m basing as conjecture is that this is what her name means. There is nowhere to suggest this.
January 13, 2008 at 6:10 am
Greetings All belonging to my Fraternity and those not alike.
It is interesting how something such as this mere website can spark so much debate.
All that ask any questions regarding the Order should seek the information by inquiring with your local lodge or OES chapter and if truly found of good character you can be afforded the rite of passage and receive the answers to your questions in full. Of course you will not learn what the true intention of the information is that you seek unless you experience it. The internet provides alot of info, but the accuracy is as honorable as the writer to which you do not know in most cases.
If you are truly interested this is how you find it out. If you still find it demonic or satanic or whatever other myths that are out there, you can always leave and never return. It is in my opinion ignorant to base your theory, train of thought or perceptions off of that which you do not know personally.
God Bless.
January 16, 2008 at 8:10 am
A LIFE EXEMPLIFYING LOVE
Life holds no greater lessons than the two outstanding precepts taught in the lesson of the Fifth Point – Electa. The first is, “Heroic endurance of persecution when demanded in the defense of truth of truth.”
The name Electa, does not appear in the Bible, but she is referred to the brief story as the Elect Lady.
The scene of the story is laid in Asia Minor, the peninsula lying between the Black Sea on the north and the Mediterranean Sea on the south. The date of the writing of this story is between 85 and 95 A.D.
Persecution comes in many different forms and for various purposes. Whatever the form, whether it be the faithlessness of a trusted friend, the caustic sneer of an enemy, the outflashing of envy or jealousy on the part of a trusted friend, discourtesy on the part of a superior or just the visitation of some trial that may come to you – whatever my be the form, there is but one safe course to pursue, and that is “bear it with heroic endurance and despair not.”
Electa was noted for her charity and benevolence. A woman of refinement and wealth who wanted to feed and succor the poor and hungry and to relieve the sufferings of those afflicted with body ills. She was in truth the great Red Cross nurse, ready at all times to step in where want and misery prevailed, and where relief was sorely needed. She delighted in using her vast wealth for the relief of mankind.
Her Christian beliefs soon became known throughout the land, and one day she was visited by a band of Roman soldiers who bade her renounce the religion she has adopted. They even presented her with a cross and demanded that she trample it under foot in order to show to the world that she renounced this new-found religion.
It is said that she opened not her mouth, that she uttered no word of protest, but took the cross in her hands and clasped it with ardor to her breast, and looked toward heaven to show that she put her trust in the God of her religion.
The scripture text from which this heroine takes her lead is found in the Second Epistle of John, and is only a short letter addressed to “the Elect Lady” and her children.” The message contains only thirteen short verses and less than three hundred words, and that is all the Bible references that we can find. The name Electa, like that of Adah, seems to be a creation of Robert Morris, the writer of the Eastern Star Ritual, and it has no significance outside our Order. Perhaps the words of Robert Morris himself could appropriately be given just at this point. Brother Morris says: “The Fifth Point introduced me to the early history of the Christian church, where ‘midst a ‘noble army of martyrs,’ I found many whose lives and deaths overflowed the cup of martyrdom with a glory not surpassed by any of those named in the Holy Writ. This gave me Electa, “the Elect Lady,” friend of St. John – the Christian woman whose venerable years were crowned with the utmost splendor of the crucifixion. The fact that the name of this estimable woman cannot be ascertained with certainty does not lessen our interest nor the value of the many lessons taught. The story is true enough, but it is the name only, so to speak, that does not have a basis in fact. It seems to me that nothing is lost by accepting the statement, ‘the Elect Lady,’ to be an individual. The lesson taught can be widely and wisely applied.
St. John exhorts her to love. It is a personal request made by the Master Himself, when He says: “I give unto you a new commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.” “The highest expression of brotherly love is found in obedience to all the commands which God has enjoined in the regulation of the relations between brethren. The clearest expression of love is obedience to the will of God so far as He ahs revealed His will in definite precepts.
It is in reality a command that she should abide steadfastly in what she now knows and believes and let this knowledge regulate her life.
The growth and activity of the Christian religion was bound to stir up adverse action on the part of the Roman government sooner or later, because of the very nature of it; in fact, it had become quite irritating and pressure had been brought to eradicate it. The splendid mansion of Electa was singled out as one to be visited. The edict of the Roman government was issued against every one who professed the Christian religion. All who were suspected of holding to the Faith were commanded to trample upon the cross that was handed to them, as a testimony of this renunciation. Electa absolutely refused to obey the edict. She spurned the test, and she and her family were forthwith cast into a dungeon for twelve months. At the end of the time the judge, who had often shared her hospitality, appeared and offered her another opportunity to recant from Christianity, and again she refused. Thereupon she was dragged forth and savagely scourged nearly to death, and then dragged to a hill where she and her entire family were nailed to the cross. She was the last one to meet the fate, and she was compelled to witness the tragic death of her husband and children. She is quoted as saying with her expiring breath: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
She professed her faith to the whole world, although she knew what reproaches, and persecutions, even unto death, she must undergo for the stand that she took. It meant loss of good name, wealth, means of doing good, liberty, family, and death itself. Yet she was willing to undergo all these things for the love of Christ and for the Christian religion in which she showed such implicit faith. What a rich heritage was hers! “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building in God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Electa, the martyr to her Christian faith, stands out as a striking example of the life and death of the early Christians. She is also an example of the Eternal Truth as laid down by Jesus when He said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man cometh unto the Father except by Me.”
“Let us love one another.”
It is especially fitting that this “Electa Lady”, given the individual name of “Electa” should represent the fifth and honored last Degree in the Eastern Star Ritual. As the heroine of the fifth point of the Star, she presents the glory and benedictions of patience and submission to the will of god under the stress of wrong treatment and deadly persecution. Just as Freemasonry emphasizes in all its Ritual, tenets, symbols, and lectures that genuine goodliness requires that one give up life rather than prove unfaithful to truth and duty, so the Rites of the Eastern Star reach their climax with teh same truth.
February 3, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Contary to popular belief, the inverted pentagram is not a symbol for satan except to Christians. Traditionally, the five points represent the 4 elements, with the fifth representing the human spirit or soul. Normally with the point facing up, it means the spirit is in command of the elements and all is in balance (the goal we all strive to achive). With it down, it represents that the spirit is under influence of the elements (the world around) and is seen as representing a symbol of a student aspiring to the goals of the upright pentagram.
I do not know how this applies to the Eastern Star, but it is pretty universal amongst all the cultures that have employed this symbol. It has more to do with Eastern Thought and enlightnenment than anything “Satanic”.
April 30, 2008 at 10:05 am
Electa is in the Bible John 11:21-26 she is call the Elect Lady……….
June 5, 2008 at 10:25 am
what of krishnamurti disbanding the order?
June 9, 2008 at 5:50 pm
My Grandfather and Grandmother both died within the last year. When going through their items I came across a wooden 5 sided star about the size of a softball with the letters F.A.T.A.L. I wonder if anyone could give me any information not published above in relation to this. I am not aware of my grandparents being Masons so it was a strange find to come across. Unlike the above items in addition to the letters, and the 5 emblems of the sword, crown, etc. there is also an open book, a flower, a sun, and two 4 legged animals.
Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks