From: 	Michael L.Segall (FR)
Sent: 	Tuesday, May 13, 1997 10:21 AM
To: 	Kenneth
Subject: 	RE: "Initiatory"

Dear Ken,

Further to the material you sent me on May 9, I would like to interject
some additional comments, particularly since they tie in with my paper
about initiation which I sent you earlier. Please feel free to post this
message to the list also, if you think it is of some use. I would like to
speak, in particular, about the OES and its being an initiatic society. I
am grateful to Bro. Charles H. Tupper, Librarian of the GL of Washington
State, for having supplied most of the documents mentioned below.

The story goes that Bro. Robert Morris, sometimes called "poet laureate of
American Masonry", invented the Order of the Eastern Star in the 1850-s.
"Rob" Morris (as he was called) contradicts himself a number of times on
the subject. In A Monument of Gratitude (1884) he says: "Some writers have
fallen into the error of placing the introduction of the Eastern Star as
far back as 1775.[...] What I intended to say [...] was that French
officers introduced adoptive masonry into the colonies in 1775, but nothing
like the degree called the Eastern Star, which is strictly my own
origination. [...] I recall even the trivial occurrences connected with the
work, how I hesitated for a theme, how I dallied over a name, how I wrought
face to face with the clock that I might keep my drama within due limits of
time, etc."

One has to smile about this. In Lights and Shadows, published in 1852, Rob
Morris says: "The five androgynous degrees, combined under the above title
(The Eastern Star Degrees), are supposed to have been introduced into this
country by the French officers who assisted our government during the
struggle for liberty. The titles, Jepthah's Daughter, Ruth, Esther, Martha,
and Electa, sufficiently denote the histories comprehended in the degrees."


In the Voice of Masonry of May 1862, Brother Morris says: "The restrictions
under which the Eastern Star was communicated to me were 'that it should
only be given to master masons, their wives widows, sisters and daughters,
and only when five or more ladies of the classes named were present;' these
rules I have always adhered to."

In the "Mosaic Book" (1855) the original published ritual of the Order,
Robert Morris says: "In selecting some androgynous degree, extensively
known, ancient in date, and ample in scope, for the basis of this rite, the
choice falls, without controversy, upon the Eastern Star. For this is a
degree, familiar to thousands of the most enlightened York masons and their
female relatives; established in this country at least before 1778; and one
which popularly bears the palm in point of doctrine and elegance over all
others.  Its scope, by the addition of a ceremonial and a few links in the
chain of recognition, was broad enough to constitute a graceful and
consistent system, worthy, it is believed, of the best intellect of either
sex.

According to Charles H. Tupper it has also been ascertained beyond any
doubt that Robert Morris did not invent the Order of the Eastern Star but
had it conferred upon him by Giles M. Hillyer, of Vicksburg, Mississippi,
in about 1849. Bro. Tupper also mentions an interesting statement which
appeared in 1900 in "The Eastern Star": "Order of the Eastern Star, the
English name given to adoptive masonry in England and this country, was
introduced into this country in 1780. The ritual was, however, so dramatic,
and required such gorgeous robes, that it gradually lost its hold upon the
people until our late brother, Robert Morris, revised the ritual,
reinstituting the order, bringing it to a point of perfection unknown in
the past."

Anyway, from the history, rituals and structures of the Order of the
Eastern Star one can easily see that it is a direct takeoff, with some
modifications brought by Rob Morris in the 1850-s, from French Adoptive
Masonry. The latter, which existed in France until World War 2 and was
brought to the Carribean and to the southern states (or the former
colonies) in the 1770-s or 1780-s by French military and traders, was a
co-Masonic Order already mentioned in 1744, undoubtedly initiatic and
Masonic in both form and content.

It seems however abundantly clear, from its ritual and history, that Rob
Morris' intent was that the Order of the Eastern Star become a form of
co-Masonry so fashioned, described and defined as to circumvent the Masonic
injunction which states that "No woman can be made a Mason." When I see
practically all American Masons and OES Sisters strenuously protest that
"Eastern Star is not Masonry", I must concede with a smile that Rob Morris
succeeded...

Fraternally, Michael L. Segall (a.k.a. Mike), 33,
IPM, Lodge of Research John Scot Erigena #1000,
Grand Lodge of France, Paris.

.
