Origin from 1850
The Order of the Eastern Star is a fraternal organisation associated with Freemasonry that admits both women and men, making it one of the largest such bodies open to women. Its teachings are based on biblical figures and heroines, and its ritual draws moral lessons of fidelity, faith, and charity, symbolised by a five-pointed star. Membership is generally open to Master Masons and to women with a Masonic relationship, and its chapters carry out charitable and social work. It presents itself not as a religion but as a fraternal order grounded in shared moral values.
Facts
Organisation
Who May BelongThe Order of the Eastern Star admits both women and men. Full membership is open to Master Masons in good standing and to their eligible female relatives by blood or marriage, admitted together to the same five degrees rather than through a separate women-only auxiliary. Membership DetailFull membership is open to Master Masons in good standing and to their eligible female relatives by blood or marriage (wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, widows and similar degrees of relation, with the exact list varying by jurisdiction), making it one of the few Masonic-affiliated bodies that admits men and women together to the same degrees rather than running a separate women-only auxiliary. 1 GovernanceAutonomous local bodies under a national umbrella association 1 Origins
Origin Period Place of Origin Origin of the NameThe order takes its name and five pointed star emblem from the Star of Bethlehem, with each point of the star named for one of five biblical heroines whose stories form the basis of its five degrees: Adah, Ruth, Esther, Martha and Electa. 1 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Learn More
The Largest Fraternal Order That Women Can Actually Join
The Order of the Eastern Star occupies a particular structural niche in the Masonic world: it is the principal route by which the Masonic system opens to women at all.
Adoptive Masonry
Developed in the United States around 1850 by Rob Morris, the order admits both women and men, with membership generally open to Master Masons and to women who hold a Masonic relationship, which is why it is described as an adoptive or appendant body rather than as Freemasonry proper. Its ritual draws moral lessons of fidelity, faith and charity from a set of biblical heroines, symbolised by a five-pointed star.
Not a religion, and not the craft
The order presents itself not as a religion but as a fraternal body grounded in shared moral values, and it is careful to distinguish itself from the craft lodges: it confers no Masonic degrees and its members are not made Masons by it. Its scale, with chapters across the United States and abroad, makes it one of the largest fraternal organisations open to women, and its charitable and social work is the ordinary substance of its activity.
Five Heroines, and a History the Order Had to Face
The Order of the Eastern Star teaches through five degrees, each attached to a woman from scripture and to a point of the star and a colour: Adah, Ruth, Esther, Martha and Electa. Each stands for a virtue, and the whole is a moral system rather than an esoteric one. There is no claim to hidden knowledge and no grade ladder implying attainment.
Membership requires a Masonic connection, and the qualifying relationships have been widened over time. It is by a large margin the biggest fraternal body in the world that women can actually join, and for a century it was one of the few structured public organisations available to women in many American towns, which accounts for its size far better than its ritual does.
The order carries the segregation of American fraternalism in its structure. Predominantly Black chapters organised under the Prince Hall obedience, which had been refused recognition by mainstream Grand Lodges since the eighteenth century, and Prince Hall Eastern Star bodies exist as separate organisations to this day. Recognition between the mainstream and Prince Hall lines has come gradually and jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and in some places it has not come at all. Any account of the order that does not say so has left out the part that shaped it.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Derived From
The Order of the Eastern Star is the Masonic body that admits women, through their relation to a Master Mason, alongside Master Masons themselves.
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
The Order appears as one thread within a broader PBS documentary on Black fraternal institution-building, illustrated through a contributor's family testimony, rather than as the episode's sole subject.
Sources
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