The
Order of the Eastern Star was designed to serve among women the same purpose as that of Free Masonry among men, and to provide
the Free Masons with cooperation of women kindred without accepting them into
the Lodge.
The principles are personified by five stories
of women taken from the Bible. They are fidelity, obedience, loyalty, truth and heroic endurance personafied by Adah,
Ruth, Esther, Martha and Electa.
