INTO THE VAULT
So what kind of magical activities took place in the House of the Sun? Felkin and most of the other Havelock North locals involved in Whare Ra were Anglicans who appear to have approached the Golden Dawn as a syncretic esoteric system that could accommodate their interests in cultivating a ritualbased Christian mysticism. It is therefore hard to imagine the upstanding burghers of Havelock North engaged in the ravishment of virgins or the Crowley-style consumption of semen-soaked communion wafers.
The Golden Dawn curriculum implemented and modified by Felkin involved diligent long-term study and instruction in magical theory, philosophy, and ritual practice, structured through grades organised at three hierarchical levels. The first level/Outer Order (grades 0-4) involved study of topics such as astrology, the Kabbalah, visualisation of thought forms through meditation and the basics of communication via the astral plane. Advanced theory and ritual practices were the focus of the second level/Inner Order (grades 5-7: this level is also known by the formal title ‘Rosea Rubea et Aureae Crucis’). The 7th grade was generally regarded as the highest to which most students could progress, the third level (Grades 8-10) being that reserved for ‘secret chiefs’ and other magical luminaries.
According to the research of New Zealand magician Patrick Zalewski, members of the Inner Order undertook rituals for contacting godforms, healing and exorcism, and instruction in using the Enochian system for divination and projection: among other things, this involved becoming proficient at playing “Enochian chess”. Other inner order activities, such as undertaking a “Ritual of Invisibility” and learning how to use magical “Swords, Lotus Wands, and elemental weapons”, are evocative of popular Harry Potter-esque conceptions of magic, while a patina of pagan nature worship is implicit in tasks such as “recording astral contact with at least 10 species of plant”.
The septagonal, elaborately decorated vault that today constitutes the most visible relic of Whare Ra had several profound applications. In the first years of the temple, students would spend a night alone in the candlelit vault as part of their initiation into the Inner Order. Within the Inner Order, the vault was used to develop skills in advanced practical magic. Individual students would prepare for tests in which they would undertake a variety of magical exercises to help focus their will upon one of the mystical symbols painted in squares on the walls. If successful, the symbol would allegedly become a “portal” of white light through which the initiate might be able “to communicate with and travel to the astral realm” in forms such as visions, voices, and out-of-body experiences.