Baha’i Mage

The extraordinary life and work of Robert Felkin – Baha’i Mage

Abstract

In investigating the relationship between the Baha’is and the Western Esoteric Tradition
several individuals emerge as important in both circles, however, none are as prominent in
as many fields as Robert Felkin. Felkin was notable as a physician, a missionary, an
Anglican, a magician and a Baha’i. The purpose of this paper is to examine his life and work
in the context of his search for Ascended Masters and the multiplicity of identities and roles
he assumed

Introduction

The junction of all times, people and places are unique, but Edwardian England was a time
and place where technology, education, politics and religion combined to create people who
were literate, had access to information, could travel and had time enough to indulge their
passions as never before. In the early years of the twentieth century, if you were young,
British and rich, the world, or at least the large part of it contained within the British Empire
was yours to explore and exploit or to serve and administer.

There had been significant challenges to the traditional Christian beliefs; Charles Darwin had
published his Origin of the Species in 1859, causing an intellectual revolution which would
filter down into the wider population. George MacDonald’s The Golden Bough (1890)
attempted to rationalise the relationship between religion and magic, using the evolutionary
ideas of Darwin to argue that magic had evolved into religion which would in turn be
replaced by science. The Empire had brought India closer and with it Theosophy and Liberal
Christianity, which attempted to syncretise Eastern and Western belief systems. The
emergence of archaeology as a serious academic discipline had allowed the public to view
the treasures of past societies in the cathedral like museums which were the centre piece of
every large town, whist folklorists attempted to catalogue the survival of a more localised
ancient communities.

Perhaps one of the most interesting developments in spiritual life at the turn of the
nineteenth century was the resurgence of occultism and the consequent growth in
membership of occult and esoteric orders amongst the educated classes. The most
important of the occult orders was The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which was
founded in 1888 William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell
MacGregor Mathers, all three were Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in
Anglia (S.R.I.A) a Masonic esoteric Christian order formed by Robert Wentworth Little in
18651. The Golden Dawn was a magical order, the purpose of which was spiritual
development. Membership was open to both men and women and the system of spiritual
development was based on hierarchy and initiation similar to that of Masonic Lodges. There
were three orders within the Golden Dawn; the First Order taught esoteric philosophy based
on the Hermetic Qabalah and personal development through study and awareness of
the four Classical Elements as well as the basics of astrology, tarot divination, and geomancy.
The Second or "Inner" Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and
Cross of Gold), taught proper magic, including scrying, astral travel, and alchemy. The Third
Order was that of the "Secret Chiefs", who were said to be highly spiritually developed
1
King, 1989,.p. 28

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 Baha’i Mage
beings; they supposedly directed the activities of the lower two orders by spirit
communication with the Chiefs of the Second Order.
The Secret Chiefs was the name given to these highly developed beings in the Golden
Dawn system; they were believed to be the source of the esoteric knowledge entrusted to
the Order. They are similar in concept to the Bodhisattva in Buddhism, enlightened beings
who seek to enlighten others. The earliest Western source on their activities is entities is Karl
von Eckartshausen, whose The Cloud Upon The Sanctuary, published in 1795, explained in
some detail their character and motivations. Their names and descriptions have varied
through time, dependent upon those who reflect their experience of contact with them.
Several 19th and 20th century occultists claimed to belong to or to have contacted these
Secret Chiefs and made these communications known to others. It was important for
esoteric orders to have access to such beings in order to claim their teachings were
authentic pathways to spiritual development. The nature of the Secret Chiefs would bedevil
the Golden Dawn and ultimately rip it apart. Felkin would spend his life seeking to meet them
in flesh and blood, whilst others would defend their elusiveness by arguing they were not of
this world and communicated only in the spirit form.
Felkin

Robert William Felkin (March 13, 1853 - December 28, 1926) was born in
Beeston, Nottinghamshire, the son of Robert Felkin (1828-1899),
a Nonconformist lace manufacturer. His grandfather, William Felkin (1795-1874), was the
son of a Baptist minister who remains one of the best known names in the Victorian lace
industry, he was mayor of Nottingham in 1851, when he exhibited at the Great Exhibition. In
1864, Felkin’s lace business failed and he retired to write about the lace
and hosiery trades.[3] His son and partner Robert Felkin moved to Wolverhampton to take up
a position as manager of the home department of Mander Brothers, varnish manufacturers.
His son, also called Robert was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School, where he
met the explorer David Livingstone, who inspired him to become a medical missionary.[1][4]
The young Robert spent some time in Chemnitz in Germany with an uncle and learned
German, Germany was in some ways to be an abiding motif in his spiritual life, the home of
Christian Rosenkreuz, the possibly allegorical founder of the Rosicrucian Order, of Karl von
Eckartshausen and Anna Sprengel the name of the alleged source of the Golden Dawn
system.

In 1875 Felkin became a medical student at Edinburgh University, although the Golden
Dawn had a very eclectic membership base, the medical profession was well represented
and this may be a reflection of the Rosicrucian linking of healing with spiritual development.
After a meeting in 1877 with Alexander Murdoch Mackay (1849-1890) a Scottish missionary Felkin
interrupted his medical studies and in 1878 joined a Church Mission Society mission to Central
Africa. His experiences in Africa were recounted in his obituary in the British Medical
Journal:

At Khartoum he first met Gordon, and further on Emin Pasha, whose knowledge of
natives and local conditions was later to prove so helpful to the band of missionaries.
The journey from the Nile to the Great Lakes was fraught with danger and hardship,
but eventually Felkin and his companions reached Uganda. In February, 1879, he
was presented to King M'tesa, whose personal physician he then became. Soon
afterwards an anti-missionary movement commenced, and Felkin and his party went
in great danger of their lives. His pluck and ready wit did not desert him, and he

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issued a warning to the king that should any harm come to the missionaries a great
disaster would befall the tribes. As a sign that this should be so he foretold that the
sun should be darkened; the eclipse duly occurred at the expected time, and Felkin
was established as a “great medicine man." Much of his time in Uganda was spent in
the study of local diseases, and he also made anthropological measurements of the
pygmies. He left Uganda with the envoys of King M'tesa to Queen Victoria, and
returned with them safely to the Nile, thus destroying an old superstition that no white
man could journey to the Great Lakes and back without losing his life. His next
expedition was to Zanzibar, where he lived for three years and worked with the
explorers Schweinfurth, Buschta, Junker, and Sir Harry Johnston. His interest in the
welfare of the natives made him a strong opponent of the slave trade, and he
became a-very active member of the Anti-Slavery Society.2

Clearly his missionary activities were adventurous, however, the story of Felkin using the
eclipse to suggest shamanic powers is interesting in that it foreshadows his career as a
magician, and it is possible that it was a story he liked to recount to impress later audiences
with his apparent intuitive use of the elements.

In 1881 Felkin returned to Edinburgh to complete his medical studies and a year later
married Mary “Polly” Mander, the daughter of his father’s employer at Mander brothers. His
African adventures had broadened his outlook as a medical practitioner, on 9th January,
1884 as a final year student he gave a lecture to the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society on
entitled “Notes on Labour in Central Africa.” This lecture was recalled in full in a paper
written in 1999, Felkin’s genuine admiration for the African obstetrician is remarkable in the
colonial era, as is the fact his publications are still available :

So far as I know, Uganda is the only country in Central Africa where abdominal
section is practised with the hope of saving both mother and child. The operation is
performed by men, and is sometimes successful; at any rate, one case came under
my observation in which both survived. It was performed in 1879 at Kahura. The
patient was a fine healthy-looking young woman of about twenty years of age. This
was her first pregnancy ... The woman lay upon an inclined bed, the head of which
was placed against the side of the hut. She was liberally supplied with banana wine,
and was in a state of semi-intoxication. She was perfectly naked. A band of mbuga or
bark cloth fastened her thorax to the bed, another band of cloth fastened down her
thighs, and a man held her ankles. Another man, standing on her right side, steadied
her abdomen. The operator stood, as I entered the hut, on her left side, holding his
knife aloft with his right hand, and muttering an incantation. This being done, he
washed his hands and the patient’s abdomen, first with banana wine and then with
water. Then, having uttered a shrill cry, which was taken up by a small crowd
assembled outside the hut, he proceeded to make a rapid cut in the middle line,
commencing a little above the pubes, and ending just below the umbilicus. The whole
abdominal wall and part of the uterine wall were severed by this incision, and the
liquor amnii escaped; a few bleeding-points in the abdominal wall were touched with
a red-hot iron by an assistant. The operator next rapidly finished the incision in the
uterine wall; his assistant held the abdominal walls apart with both hands, and as
soon as the uterine wall was divided he hooked it up also with two fingers. The child
was next rapidly removed, and given to another assistant after the cord had been cut,
and then the operator, dropping his knife, seized the contracting uterus with both
hands and gave it a squeeze or two. He next put his right hand into the uterine cavity
through the incision, and with two or three fingers dilated the cervix uteri from within
outwards. He then cleared the uterus of clots and the placenta, which had by this

2
Br Med J. 1927 February 12; 1(3449): 309.

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time become detached, removing it through the abdominal wound. His assistant
endeavoured, but not very successfully, to prevent the escape of the intestines
through the wound. The red-hot iron was next used to check some further
haemorrhage from the abdominal wound, but I noticed that it was very sparingly
applied. All this time the chief “surgeon” was keeping up firm pressure on the uterus,
which he continued to do till it was firmly contracted. No sutures were put into the
uterine wall. The assistant who had held the abdominal walls now slipped his hands
to each extremity of the wound, and a porous grass mat was placed over the wound
and secured there. The bands which fastened the woman down were cut, and she
was gently turned to the edge of the bed, and then over into the arms of assistants,
so that the fluid in the abdominal cavity could drain away on to the floor. She was
then replaced in her former position, and the mat having been removed, the edges of
the wound, i.e. the peritoneum, were brought into close apposition, seven thin iron
spikes, well polished, like acupressure needles, being used for the purpose, and
fastened by string made from bark cloth. A paste prepared by chewing two divergent
roots and spitting the pulp into a bowl was then thickly plastered over the wound, a
banana leaf warmed over the fire being placed on the top of that, and, finally, a firm
bandage of mbugu cloth completed the operation. Until the pins were placed in
position the patient had uttered no cry, and an hour after the operation she appeared
to be quite comfortable.3

His interest in tropical medicine dominated his medical career; his publications include the
Geographical Distribution of Tropical Disease and an article on the climate of the Egyptian
Soudan. He was joint author of Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan, published in 1882. In
1884 he obtained the diplomas L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. from Edinburgh University, the following
year he received a M.D. degree from Marburg University.

In 1886, he delivered his first lecture in Tropical medicine at Minto House, Edinburgh, and
from 1886 to 1896 he held the post of lecturer in tropical diseases to the Edinburgh Medical
School, he also carried on private practice in the city; during this time he took up the study of
psychotherapy, translating Hiuger's work and writing a book on hypnotism. It was also in
1886 that the Felkins joined the Theosophical Society, they may have come into contact with
Theosophist through a Bible study group they were involved with, which introduced them to
Hindu literature. 4

It would appear that the Theosophical Society did not fulfil the spiritual needs of the Felkins
and in March 1894 Dr Felkin and Mrs Felkin were initiated into the Amen-Ra temple of the
Golden Dawn in Edinburgh, he took the motto Finem Respice “Have regard to the end” .

In 1896 the Felkins moved to London where Robert Felkin undertook specialist work in
nervous diseases and gynaecology, at the same time being consulting physician to various
companies with tropical interests. The move might have been precipitated by Felkin’s
involvement in the Golden Dawn, because in December of the same year he became a 5=6
member of the second order, taking the motto Aur Mem Meearab “Light, Water, West”,
unusually a Hebrew rather than the usual Latin motto.

By 1900 the tensions which would eventually tear the Golden Dawn apart were coming to a
head. Within the Order was a group founded by Florence Farr called the Sphere Group, this

3
PERINATAL LESSONS FROM THE PAST, Robert Felkin MD (1853–1926) and Caesarean
delivery in Central Africa (1879)Peter M Dunn Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 1999 May; 80(3):
F250–F251. PMCID: PMC1720922
4
Ellwood p.162

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 Baha’i Mage
seems to have represented a mystical rather than magical current. In a long and detailed
document entitled ‘Instruction issued by S.S.D.D. to Members of the Sphere Group. March
1901’ Farr explains a complex process of visualisation involving astral travel through an
expanding sequence of spheres, the purpose of this was to ‘transmute evil into good’. She
explained that there was:

no connection with any Egyptian Adept ... We are to consider the axis of our globe
as consisting of the following symbols: The Cup of the Stolistes5 containing a burning
heart. This emblem is to be considered as occupying the central axis and the
intermediate spaces of the globe between the axis and the surface.

It will be seen in practice that when the operation of gradual enlargement is being
carried out, each Sephiroth widens out like a ray from a central Tiphareth for, in a
sense, all operations are commenced from the Sephirothic globe of Tiphareth or the
absolute Centre – the centre of the Heart6.

Farr went on to outline the way in which each globe should be formulated, the first sphere
was to be ‘formed astrally over the Headquarters of the Order’, while successive spheres
were to be nine miles, 2,700 miles, 8,100 and so on until the solar system itself is visualised.
The motifs of cups, hearts and the heart centre would be important for Felkin and his
colleagues in the work they would later undertake.

In 1903 when the Golden Dawn finally tore itself apart, Felkin was amongst those who
formed the Ordo Stella Matutina. The choice of the name of the order was important and
symbolic as Richardson and Hughes point out:

The Stella Matutina is, of course, the Morning Star, or Venus, which happens to be
both a morning and evening star. When it precedes the Sun before the dawn it is
known as Lucifer, the Lightbearer; when it follows the Sun at dusk, it is known as
Hesperus. Either way it brackets the impulse of the original Golden Dawn and can be
glimpsed above the horizon when the Sun itself can no longer be seen.7

The Sun would also be a motif in Felkin’s work; for now he was in contact with entities he
called the Sun Masters. One of these was known as teacher Ara Ben Shemesh (abbreviated
as A.B.S.), the “Arab Teacher”. In fact Felkin’s guides take on a particularly Eastern and
Solar aspect from this point onwards. He was not however content with meeting higher
beings on the Astral and yearned to meet them in the flesh. Between 1906 and 1914
became increasingly occupied with meeting the Secret Chiefs and travelled Europe looking
for them.

1903 was a year of many changes for Felkin, his wife, Mary died and this seems to have
caused him to reaffirm his commitment to esoteric Christianity through involvement with the
Community of the Resurrection, with whom he spent some time in retreat. The Community
had been founded in 1892 by Charles Gore, later a prominent bishop. The community was
one of Anglican priests, who took a vow of celibacy and lived communally. The Community
of the Resurrection still exists and is based in Mirfield, Yorkshire, a brief perusal of their

5
A symbol of importance in the Golden Dawn system, in particular relating to the Practicus 3=8 grade,
in which members were advised to meditate on this symbol, which is similar to the Ace of Cups, cups
being the Tarot equivalent of hearts. The cup is a symbol of spiritual receptiveness and the aim of the
meditation is to become like the cup, open to being filled.
6
Gilbert, R.A. (1997)Farr’s letter quoted p.144
7
Richardson, Alan & Hughes, Geoff, (1989) p. 15

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website gives no suggestion that they currently espouse esoteric doctrines, however, in the
1900’s a number of the community were interested in Rosicrucianism, in particular one
Father Fitzgerald who was instrumental in Felkin’s decision, to emigrate to New Zealand.

In 1906 Felkin married Harriot Miller, a clairvoyant with the motto, Quaestor Lucis, seeker of
the Light (QL).

According to King in 1906, Felkin believed he had found what he was looking for: a
professor, his adopted daughter, and another gentleman, all who he believed were in fact
Rosicrucians. The professors' adopted daughter had claimed to be the niece of Anna
Sprengel (the Secret Chief who authorised the founding of the original Golden Dawn), and
also claimed that her aunt was a member of the same organization as herself. 8

The following year Felkin was initiated into several new paths in January he joined an
Edinburgh lodge of the Freemasons, by March he was a Master Mason. On April 11th1907
Felkin was initiated into the Societas Rosicruciana by the Supreme Magus William Wynn
Westcott.

It was in 1910 Felkin met Rudolf Steiner and was genuinely impressed by him, he perceived
Steiner as the link to the German Rosicrucian orders and consequently confirming Felkin’s
beliefs about the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. In late 1910 Felkin, not being able to
personally attend the instruction of Steiner, consulted A.B.S. about his choice of
representative - Nevill Meakin. Meakin, was approved by A.B.S. and soon was sent to Berlin
as Felkin’s emissary. Prior to his departure he was conferred the Grade of Adeptus Minor, in
a Ceremony where A.E. Waite himself acted as Chief Adept.

Neville Gauntlett Tudor Meakin (c. 1876 - 1912), was a member of the Stella Matutina, he
had met the Felkins in 1909, through a mutual friend9. Meakin is a somewhat shadowy
figure; he was born in Ambleside, his baptism is recorded as taking place in Ambleside on
the 1st June 1876 and his father is named as Henry Meyers Meakin. In 1881 was living with
his mother, Roberta Meakin in the St. Georges Cottage Home Orphanage, in Ocle
Pritchard,10 where she was the manager of the establishment. The 1891 census lists him as
a scholar of Fettes College in Edinburgh. According to Bentham, when he was twenty-one
Meakin’s step father, a Rev. Meakin, told him that his real name was Tudor and gave him
some family papers, which showed him to be the rightful heir to the Grand Mastership of the
Order of the Table Round11. This order had, according to Meakin, been in existence since
the time of King Arthur and had passed through generations of his family, admittedly with a
break of three hundred years; it was then revived by Meakin’s grandfather. This seems
unlikely to be anything more than a fanciful explanation of the origins of the order, Meakin’s
mother died 1st May 1909, she is described as the wife of Henry Meyers Meakin, there does
not seem to have been any step father and the name ‘Tudor’ does not appear on any record,
however, Meakin’s grandfather was the Rev. John Alexander Deverill Meakin (1805 – 1873).
He obtained a BA degree from St. John’s College, Cambridge and was ordained in Norwich
Cathedral on the 8th June, 1828, after spending a few years as a curate in East Anglia, he
became vicar of St. Mary’s, Speenhamland (a suburb of Newbury, Berkshire) in 1834 and

8
King, 1989, page 99
9
Bentham, 1993, page 102
10
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?mode=thread&id=19883
11
Bentham, 1993, page 101

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 Baha’i Mage
remained the incumbent until his death in 1873. As yet there is no evidence to suggest he
was the source of his grandson’s claim. Neville Meakin co-authored with Hugh Tempest
Sheringham two books, one entitled The Court of Sacharissa, which was published by
Heineman in 1904, and The Enemy’s Camp, he also wrote an article called The Dream,
which was published in the Occult Review; he is credited for the revision of the Portal Grade
Ritual of the Stella Matutina. He wrote The Assassins - a Romance of the Crusades under
the name Neville Myers Meakin, this is the only example of his using his father’s middle
name as his own.

On 18 June 1910 Meakin met Wellesley Tudor Pole (1884 - 1968). Meakin feared he would
die without an heir, for he was suffering from tuberculosis, and was actively seeking a
possible replacement for the Grand Mastership of the Order of the Table Round. Finding
Wellesley Tudor Pole was the fulfilment of his best hopes, for Pole not only also claimed
Welsh royal blood, but also was intimately linked with the grail legends. Pole and three
female friends had discovered a blue bowl in a well at Glastonbury; the bowl was of mystical
significance to Pole and his circle which included the famous playwright and educator, Alice
Buckton. The bowl and the well would resonate with Felkin as the cup and water motif from
the Sphere group. Meakin was drawn into Pole’s circle and incorporated some of his ideas
about the reopening of the Celtic sites into his Arthurian scheme within his Order. Meakin
visited the Oratory in September 1910 and soon after began to initiate Pole into the Order of
the Table Round.

In the meantime, Meakin had other interests, Edward Waite commented in his notebook:

March 16, 1911: EOL gone to Cairo, largely on Bahai business, but has had 3rd
Order papers on Tree of Life. These to be transcribed and shown to SR.12

What Baha’i business might Meakin have been on in Cairo? Abdu’l Baha was due to visit the
British Isles later that year and it seems reasonable to suppose that Meakin was finalising
travel arrangements. It would seem that ‘Abdu’l Baha was also impressed with Meakin, as
Louis Gregory records in his pilgrim’s notes:

Pleasure was expressed at seeing 'Abdu'l-Baha look so well. He replied that He felt
well. I am glad that you overlook my shortcomings and receive me so cordially. His
beautiful face became illumined by a smile and He answered: "You are welcome,
very welcome! I have waited for your coming and (indicating Mr. Meakin) have a
special guide to take you around."13

So what relevance were Felkin and his circle inferring in the Baha’i Teachings? Felkin’s
Astral guides were now Solar and this is reflected in the mottoes of Meakin,
Ex Oriente Lux (The light from the East) (E.O.L.) and of Andrew Cattanach, Esto Sol Testis,
(Be a witness to the Sun) (E.S.T). Andrew Cattanach was a Baha’i from at least 191314 and
appears on voting lists into the 1920’s, he was a member of Stella Matutina, little is known
about him. Their primary contact with the Baha’is may have been Wellesley Tudor Pole, who
had first encountered the Baha’i Teachings in Constantinople in 190815, possibly through the

12
http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/waite/A.E._Waite_-_Ordo_RR_et_AC.pdf
13
http://bahai-library.com/pilgrims/louis.html
14
http://www.northill.demon.co.uk/relstud/uk.htm#scot
15
Tudor Pole, Wellesley (1911). "A Wonderful movement in the East, A visit to Abdul-Baha at
Alexandria". Star of the West 01 (18)

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 Baha’i Mage
American Baha’i Stanwood Cobb (1881 – 1982) who was working at the university in
Constantinople at the time. There is Solar imagery in the in the Baha’i Writings, indeed,
Baha’u’llah refers to himself as the "Sun of the Iqan" (shams al-Iqan). However, there may
be a simpler inference, ‘Abdu’l Baha may have been supposed by Felkin to be one of the
elusive Secret Chiefs, perhaps an earthly embodiment of Ara Ben Shemesh. Certainly the
Baha’i Teachings would on the unity of East and West would have resonated with Aur Mem
Meearab and Ex Oriente Lux , underpinned by Pole and his Grail quest, with all the
symbolism that entailed.

In September 1911 Felkin met ‘Abdu’l Baha in London at the home of Lady Blomfield16, in
the course of his meeting with ‘Abdu’l Baha, Felkin was given two rings, he would later pass
these on to Maurice Chambers, one was lost in Egypt but the other was passed to a Baha’i
family in New Zealand. No record of the meeting remains, however, a letter exists written to
Maurice Chambers from ‘Abdu’l Baha when Chambers was in Egypt at the end of the First
World War waiting to go home, but trying also to get to Palestine to see Abdu'l Baha. In this
letter Abdu'l Baha remarks on Maurice's "teacher" mentioning that he had met him "the
honoured Dr. Felkin" in London.

Meakin’s premonition of his death before he could secure the succession of the Order came true;
shortly before he was due to initiate Pole and Felkin, he died on the 4th October 1912. His
address at the time of his death is recorded as 47, Bassett Road, North Kensington; the National
Probate Calendar names the executor of his will, as Hugh Tempest Sheringham, with whom he
had written two books. Sheringham would later become editor of The Field magazine and a
noted authority in fishing; however, he does not seem to have shared Meakin’s interest in the
esoteric.

Felkin consulted Arthur Edward Waite (1857-1942) another Golden Dawn practitioner about the
matter of the Grand Mastership of the Order of the Table Round and eventually, when Felkin
settled in New Zealand he took all the signs, symbols and rituals of the Order with him. Wellesley
Tudor Pole no longer gave the matter serious consideration.17 Pole wrote18 to Harriet Felkin
arguing the impossibility of Felkin becoming head of the family order of Order of the Table Round
when he was not a member of the family, despite attempts of the last Grand Master, Neville Meakin, to
invest him, this suggests Pole was at least open minded about the claims which Meakin made to the
antiquity of the Order. Indeed, perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Meakin is that Steiner,
Felkin and Pole, all intelligent men, took him so seriously, and that ‘Abdu’l Baha entrusted him to
be the guide of Louis Gregory, there must have been more to him and the Order of the Table
Round than the existent records show.

In 1912 Felkin and his second wife Harriet and hid daughter Ethel visited New Zealand for
the first time. Felkin had been recommended to a group calling themselves the Society of the
Southern Cross, based in Havelock North, by Father Fitzgerald of The Community of the
Resurrection. This first visit lasted three months and saw the foundation of the Whare Ra
Temple.

16
chosen highway
17
Bentham, 1993 pp. 101-104.
18
https://pacific.st-
andrews.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=sh
ow.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27ms38515%2F6%2F25%2

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Felkin was in Germany when War broke out in 1914; he returned to England and joined the
Home Guard, two years later his health broke down and in 1916 settled permanently in New
Zealand. Felkin’s activities are described by Pat Zalewski:

During the ten years Felkin lived at Whare Ra he ran the temple like a military
operation. Classes were held on week nights for Outer Order members in which
esoteric philosophy and ritual were taught. On weekends he held classes for Inner
Order members to hone their knowledge to a fine point. These included ritual,
Enochian pronunciation and meditative exercises in the vault. By 1926, the year of
Felkin’s death, the Inner Order had grown to over 100 members, with an unspecified
number in the Outer Order. The Inner Order group was an extremely wealth one and
had members in many of the key local bodies throughout the Havelock North and
Hastings area and collectively wielded a tremendous amount of power...19

He continued with his medical and esoteric work until his death on December 28th, 1926.
He was buried facing Whare Ra, dressed in the robes of grand master of the Order of the
Table Round.

Conclusions

Felkin was clearly a gifted man, with many facets to his life and work but what does his life
mean in terms of the relationship between magic and religion in the twenty-first century?
Modern thinking neatly divides up religions, leaving little room for multiple religious identities.
This is partly because of the treatment of Religious Education in schools, where children are
taught that there are six major world religions and because of time constraints, these are
reduced almost to caricatures, with little consideration that some experiences, for example
mysticism, might cut across several traditions at once. The concept that religions are
distinct from each other reinforces the concept of rivalries and individual choice, personal
choice is of course a modern phenomenon. The Internet allows a seeker to access arcane
knowledge in seconds; the slow pace of religious tradition has been speeded up so that
there is no longer room for inference, ambiguity and relevance, now direct information can
be obtained from Haifa, Rome or Mecca. Whilst it is true that small fringe groups within
mainstream faiths can have a disproportionate presence on the Internet, it has never been
easier to obtain accurate information and in a multicultural nation actually meet with people
of different faiths, sample their beliefs and cultures before making decisions about them. A
further change has been the decline in Christianity and the cultural supremacy of the Church
of England. Felkin, along with most of his contemporaries was an Anglican, furthermore, he
was a practicing Anglican, a missionary and collaborator with the Community of the
Resurrection, yet he saw no conflict between Anglicanism and his occult work, indeed, he
saw them as complimentary. This is because his understanding of Christianity was not
entirely orthodox, In the passage quoted below, which is taken from a talk he gave to the sira
in New Zealand in February 1921 describing the history of Rosicrucian Society and the life of
its founder Christian Rosenkreutz:

19
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13030052/Zalewski-Secret-Inner-Order-Rituals-of-the-Golden-Dawn-

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 Baha’i Mage
Now these twelve were possessed or imbued by the idea that the Christianity of that
period was only a distorted image. They were filled with the greatness of Christianity,
yet they were forced at time to appear to be inimical to it as then practised. Their
great aim was to procure a synthesis of all religions, note merely as a fraction, but
also as a result of practical spiritual life; and they wished to elucidate, if possible,
that Christianity was the culmination of all the various religious systems which
had preceded it20.

And in the same address:

The revelation that he gave them was called by these twelve the true Christianity, the
Synthesis of all Religions21.

Felkin’s understanding of Christianity was that it was an all embracing system that could
synthesise all other religions, this idea was fairly widespread in occult circles and the
distinction between an occult order and a religion allowed such ideas room to flourish. In the
early years of the twentieth century it was problematic to declare oneself anything but an
Anglican, the existence of auxiliary religious and spiritual organisations, orders and lodges
allowed spiritual experimentation without forfeiting the almost tribal loyalty to the Church of
England felt by most English people. The decline of the Church of England as a social force
and the rise in the working with non Christian deities by occultists has been almost
concurrent (although probably unrelated) this has resulted in many occultists preferring to be
labelled as ‘Pagan’ if they choose a religious label at all22.

So Felkin was both an Anglican Christian and an occultist, but was he a Baha’i? His
understanding of all religions being one, would have made acceptance of the Baha’i
Teaching as they were understood in the West at the time a simple step, did he accept
Abdu’l Baha as one of the Secret Chiefs he had been searching for? Unless further evidence
emerges that will never be known for sure, however, his affiliation as a Baha’i is confirmed
by the highest authority:

We have been asked, however, to state that inasmuch as Mr. Maurice Chambers,
who is known to be one of New Zealand's earliest Baha’i’s, himself testifies that Dr.
Felkin was a Baha’i and, in fact, that it was Dr. Felkin who taught Mr. Chambers the
Faith, there seems to be no reason to doubt that Dr. Felkin was a believer23.

Interestingly there is no mention of Felkin on the website of the NSA of the Baha’is of New
Zealand.
What did he hope to achieve by setting up esoteric orders in New Zealand and what was the
attraction of these remote islands? Admittedly New Zealand had a pleasant climate and the
demographic to allow Felkin to set up a medical practice, but so did plenty of other places.
His introduction to the Society of the Southern Cross by Father Fitzgerald was of course
significant but perhaps there was a deeper reason going back to the Sphere Group and the
concept of a world enveloping spiritual network. Just as Wellesley Pole was working to
reawaken the heart centres of the British Isles, Felkin may have been thinking globally,
wanting to physically create a global spiritual network. Another Theosophist who was known
to Felkin was the explorer Percy Fawcett (1867 – c1925) who along with his eldest son,
disappeared under unknown circumstances in 1925 during an expedition it was claimed

20
http://magicoftheordinary.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/the-history-of-the-rr-et-ac-by-robert-w-felkin/
21
http://magicoftheordinary.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/the-history-of-the-rr-et-ac-by-robert-w-felkin/
22
At a public meeting of the OTO attended by the writer, it was stressed that the OTO was not a
religion and that consequently membership was not incompatible with Paganism
23
From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly
of New Zealand, 29th June, 1976

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 Baha’i Mage
intended to find "Z" – his name for what he believed to be an ancient lost city in the
uncharted jungles of Brazil. Correspondence has recently come to light that indicated that
rather than looking for a lost city, Fawcett was intending to set up a Theosophically based
community in the heart of the Brazilian jungle. As yet it is pure conjecture but this would
seem to be a similar concept to that of Havelock North in the Southern Hemisphere, it may
be they intended these communities to be the nuclei of a worldwide spiritual network.

Sources

King, Francis (1989). Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism. Avery
Publishing Group
Richardson, Alan & Hughes, Geoff (1989) Ancient Magicks for a New Age. Llewellyn
Gilbert, R.A. (1997) The Golden Dawn Scrapbook Weiser
Bentham, Patrick (1993) The Avalonians Gothic Image
Ellwood, Robert S. (1993). Islands of the Dawn: The Story of Alternative Spirituality in New
Zealand. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press

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