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Program Number: F-53
Program Name: A Cluster of Stars, 1984 (Narrative)
A CLUSTER OF STARS
A Program for Founders’ Day
By Pamela K. Prater, GW Nebraska
PROGRAM NOTES: The Program, “A Cluster of Stars,” originally was given for the 1983 Lincoln,
Nebraska, Round Table Founders' Day celebration. It could, however, be adapted for use at a chapter
meeting.
The following explanation pertaining to the presentation of “A Cluster of Stars” may be helpful.
1) At the luncheon tables, each place setting had a candle, with a drip guard, and the words to the
song, “One Little Candle.” (NOTE: The candles were obtained from a church, where they had
been used for a Christmas Eve candlelighting ceremony.)
2) Seven individual, white candles, in holders of graduating height, dolls of each Founder (which
most chapters will not have), and framed pictures of the Founders (those published in The
P.E.O. Record some years ago), placed in alphabetical order, right to left, were arranged on a
six-foot table, covered with a white tablecloth. (NOTE: For chapter use, the candles would be
sufficient.)
3) Eight P.E.O.’s assisted with the candlelighting ceremony: One played the piano, and seven
stood behind the display table and initiated the candlelighting ceremony. (NOTE For chapter
use, the program presenter could light the candles of the Founders and begin the
candlelighting ceremony.)
The HUSTLE AND BUSTLE of the day is finally behind you and you have those few, precious, quiet
moments to relax, to “sit a spell” and enjoy the fading warmth of a spring’s evening, or stroll through the
crisp coolness of an autumn’s twilight. As you gaze into the evening’s stillness, your eyes are drawn
Skyward and you see the first stars beginning to pierce the shadows of night. “Star light, star bright, first
star I see to-night…”
(BEGIN SLOWLY DIMMING THE HOUSE LIGHTS.)
ONE LITTLE CANDLE
It is better to light just One Little Candle than to
Stumble in the dark,
Better far that you light just One Little Candle,
All you need’s a tiny spark.
If we’d all say a pray’r that the world would be
Free,
The wonderful dawn of a new day we’ll see.
And if ev’ryone lit just One Little Candle,
What a bright world this would be.
As the sun disappears beyond the distant horizon and the pinks and golds of the setting sun gradually give
way to the deep blues of night, you see more stars – the North Star, Antares; soon, you are able to
distinguish several of the constellations—the Big Dipper, the Southern Cross; now, the dark sky reveals its
most spectacular sight, for it is filled almost to overflowing with hundreds, even thousands and millions, of
stars like so many flickering fire-flies, glowing candles, or sparkling diamonds.
(HOUSE LIGHTS ARE OUT. STAGE LIGHTS ARE ON.)
In the eastern sky on a clear night in early autumn, you may notice a patch of shining haze and if you look
closely, you will see that the patch is really made up of stars crowded so closely together that they appear to
be almost touching. This grouping, this “cluster of stars” is enveloped in a nebula which drapes around the
cluster like a great shimmering veil, gathering itself into wisps here and there and in some instances
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resembling something like festoons from one star to another. These stars lie in the constellation Taurus, the
bull, and are called the Pleiades (plee’a-deez), or the Seven Sisters.
Greek mythology tells us that the seven sisters are the daughters of Atlas and his wife, Pleione and her
daughters, Alcyone (al-sigh’oh-nee), Electra, Maia (may’ya), Merope (mer’-o’pee), Taygeta (tay-ij’-ee-ta),
Celaeno (see’lee’’noh), and Asterope (as-ter’oh-pee) were strolling through a forest when they were
confronted by the hunter, Orion, who was attracted by their great beauty. It is said that Orion pursued them
for five years and just as he was about to overtake them, in answer to their prayers, Jupiter (or Zeus,
depending on the storyteller) rescued the sisters by changing them into doves and transporting them to the
safety of the skies.
The magic charm and romantic mystery of the Pleiades has fascinated the imagination for hundreds of
years; their misty radiance has enchanted many great poets, from Homer and the author of Job, to
Tennyson, who was moved to write:
“Many a night I saw the Pleiades rising through
the mellow shade,
Glittering like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in
a silver braid.”
The legend of the Pleiades also carries with it a concern for a lost sister, but accounts of which sister it is
are unclear. Some stories credit Canopus with running away with Electra;
Others suggest that the lost sister might have been Merope, as she married a mortal; but the mother,
Pleione, is the one usually considered to be the lost Pleiad.
This “cluster of stars” has much more in common with P.E.O. than might at first meet the eye. It might be
said that P.E.O., too, ahs a “lost sister,” for had the organizing of the Sisterhood been held at a different
time, we may have had eight founders instead of seven. Alice Bird recalls in Out of the Heart: “When the
seven met together on the 21st of January and formed the P.E.O. Sisterhood, the call went up from all sides,
‘What about Carrie Woolson?’ For while we seven were dear friends for years, there was another who, if
she had been there, would have been the eighth P.E.O. She had been with us during three years of college
life, and in the fourth year her father sent her to Albion College to graduate under his friend, Dr. Jocelyn.
But we soon passed it over, and said that as soon as Carrie came home in the spring we would make her a
P.E.O. To me Carrie had always been one of the original P.E.O.’s. When she returned in March, six weeks
later, she became one of us, but Franc and Mary will nod approvingly when I assert that she was one of the
original P.E.O.’s.” Like the legend of the lost Pleiad, it is not clear in the early records of P.E.O., the order
of the first initiates after the original seven; however, Carrie Woolson did become of the early members and
is listed in the enrollment book as the 16th member.
Another similarity between P.E.O. and the Pleiades is the misty veil of charm and wonder that surrounds
both. And, like the Pleiades, who are often mistaken for the Little Dipper, P.E.O. is often confused with
P.T.O. or P.T.A. Founding sister Ella Steward remembers:”…many were the conjectures as to the real
meaning of P.E.O. Some jokingly guessed ‘Pigs Eat Onions,’ others of a more classical turn of mind said
‘Pleiades et Orion,’ thinking it had reference to the constellation, as we chose a star as our ensign…” And
Franc Roads tells us: “We were called the ‘Pleiades’ and we enjoyed the poetic allusion.”
In suggesting the star as the P.E.O. emblem, Alice Coffin could not have selected a more fitting symbol.
Out of the Heart reports that the women had studied astronomy and were intrigued by the vastness of the
universes, and for them, the star symbolized their quest for the highest and best things that life had to offer.
It is appropriate then, to note that each star in the universe has a fixed place in the sky and can always be
found in the same location. “For the stars,” writes Donald Menzel and Martha Martin in their book, The
Friendly Stars, “are steadfast. Spring, summer, autumn and winter each has its own bright stellar setting,
and we always can count on it appearing with unchanging beauty and unfailing promptness. The moon
comes and goes. She is the symbol of inconstancy. The planets wander from place to place – most of them
easy enough to find, but continually changing in brightness and position. Only the stars are always the
same."
Upon close inspection the Pleiades, you find that it is made up not of just seven stars, placed closely
together so as to appear touching, but rather the constellation is composed of hundreds, thousands, each
radiating its own individual brilliance for the sparkling benefit of the entire cluster. So it is with P.E.O.:
Mary Allen gave the Sisterhood its poise; Alice Bird, its literary bent; Hattie Briggs, the home-making
tendencies; Alice Coffin, the interest in education; Suela Pearson, gaiety and sociability; Franc Roads gave
us our vision and progressiveness; and Ella Stewart, our desire for social service. Together, we may appear
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to be so closely grouped that we are but a “patch of shining haze,” but individually, each sister shines with
her own special talents and abilities, to be enjoyed and shared by the whole.
As the earth rotates on its axis and traverses along its orbit around the sun, the Pleiades and the other
constellations will change their location in the night sky, even disappearing totally from our view. But as
the earth continues along its preordained route, we can again see our stars as they return to their familiar
places in the heavens. This, too, is not unlike our Sisterhood, for as our organization moves through the
years, along its charted course, and our sisters, “the stars,” travel through life, they are as close to us and as
steadfast as the constellations.
(BEGIN PLAYING “ONE LITTLE CANDLE”—SOFTLY)
In honor of our own Pleiades, our “Seven Sisters,” we light these candles in loving remembrance of
(CANDLES ARE LIT AS EACH NAME IS READ): Mary Allen, Alice Bird, Hattie Briggs, Alice Coffin,
Suela Pearson, Franc Roads, and Ella Stewart. Like the warm glow of soft candlelight, the stars offer us the
feeling of contentment, of wonder, and an understanding that God’s in His universe and all things are in
their place.
(THE SEVEN CANLELIGHTERS TAKE THEIR CANDLES
AND MOVE TO THEIR PLACES IN THE ROOM.)
As so poignantly written by D. M. Moir:
“Stars are the daisies that began
The blue fields of the sky.”
Let us all now sing together, “One Little Candle,” as we pass to each other the light of the stars. (AS
SINGING BEGINS – CHORUS ONLY—EACH CANLELIGHTER LIGHTS THE CANDLE OF THE
PERSONS SITTING AT END OF EACH TABLE. SONG WILL BE SUNG TWICE. AFTER ALL
TABLES ARE LIT, CANLELIGHTERS RETURN TO THEIR ORIGINAL PLACES. AT CONCLUSION
OF SONG, CANDLES REMAIN LIT.)
As we fondly remember our founding sisters this day, I suggest to you that we are like the Pleiades:
Appearing as one, yet separate; constant, yet constantly moving; mysterious, yet understood. We are
indeed, a “cluster of stars.”
(EXTINGUISH CANDLES.)
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