Pentagram

The other day I told you about the Union UMC cemetery and in that post I put a photo of this tombstone for Maria Ferguson.  

I thought that it was odd that it had a pentagram engraved onto the stone.  I have never associated a pentagram with Christianity and in fact, have never seen one on a tombstone in my time exploring these old cemeteries.

I did a bit of searching and found some information on Wikipedia that explained how early Christians used a pentagram.  Wikipedia offers a few explanations, including that the five points were the five virtues of a knight or that the five points were the five wounds of Jesus.  One on each foot, one on each hand, and one in his abdomen (the top of the star) when he was struck while on the cross.

The problem with all of this information is that the Christians used a pentagram with the center point at the top.  Ms. Ferguson has one upside down.

I continued searching into the late hours last night, when I should have been asleep, and found a photograph of the same pentagram with the icons in each point.

This is a pentagram used by the Order of the Eastern Star.  They are a Masonic group but a little different than the main Masonic organisation.  The OES allows women into the group as long as they have a certain relationship to a man that has reached a high level in the Masons.  Such as a wife, daughter, or sister.  The order was started in 1850.  I'm not going into detail on what these groups are about, but I will tell you that each of the five points in that pentagram represent a specific female from the Bible.  The center image is an open Bible.

So Maria was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.  The other thing that struck me as odd was that this is a black cemetery and I am surprised that blacks would be involved in the Masons of the South during the early 1900's.  

So I continued to read...

That's when I started to read about Prince Hall chapters of the Masonic Lodge.  Prince Hall chapters seem to be a black fraternity that is inline with the Masonic organisation.  Prince Hall Lodges were started in 1784.  Prince Hall was a free African American that was a Master Mason in the 1700's and helped form the African lodges.   I don't believe that all Masonic organisations recognize their Prince Hall brothers, but the top of the organization in England DO recognize them as official.

The church building at Union was built in the 1970's and the corner stone lists a Masonic Lodge at the bottom.  That lodge is a member of the Prince Hall chapter.

So, I answered some questions about why a pentagram would be inscribed onto a black woman's tombstone and I learned a bit more about free masons.  I'm still a little curious about Maria.  There doesn't seem to be any male Ferguson's buried in the cemetery and I wonder what her relationship was to join the Order of the Eastern Star.  I also wonder if a woman that was in a growing fraternity like that would have been more educated or more of a role model in the black community during those years.

If I am able to learn more about Maria or the Union Church, you'll be the first to know.   You never know, this research might lead into a new National Treasure movie!