basement of his purpose built home at Havelock North, in the Hawke's Bay Region. Felkin's visit was closely associated with the New Zealand Province of the Societas Rosicruciana. The stay was supposed to be permanent, but Meakin, who was to take over as chief of the Amoun Temple, died in the autumn of 1912. Felkin returned to England, but moved to New Zealand permanently in 1916. During the next few years, Felkin established Hermes Lodge in Bristol, the Secret College in London, and Merlin Lodge, also in London. The Amoun Temple of the Stella Matutina in London closed its doors in 1919. due to two members developing schizophrenia, one of whom, a clergyman, was later to die in a mental institution. In 1933, Israel Regardie joined the Hermes Temple in Bristol, and resigned from Amoun Temple in 1934, finding it, according to him, in a state of low morale and decay. Many of the original Golden Dawn's Knowledge Lectures had been "removed or heavily amended, largely because they were beyond the capacity of the chiefs." These same chiefs claimed "extraordinarily exalted" grades, but Regardie found them lacking. As an example, he recounted that no one in the temple knew how to play Enochian chess, in fact the Order's chess set had never been used. He constructed his own boards and he challenged his superiors in the Order to play: all refused with excuses. By 1939, Stella Matutina became largely dormant, although the Hermes Temple continued until 1970. Whare Ra in New Zealand continued until 1978. Asserting independence From the very beginning, Felkin believed that the Order must in fact gain contact with the Secret Chiefs by the use of astral work and communications which were received through either trance or automatic writing, as well as his wish that there should be unity among the Rosicrucians. Great importance was given to these messages, which were coming in considerable numbers, some of which gave approval to make changes to the rituals. Felkin constructed new rituals for the Stella Matutina, which included Adeptus Major, Adeptus Exemptus, and Magister Templi, all of which bear resemblance to the original Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Degree rituals of Ordo Templi Orientis before they were rewritten by Aleister Crowley. At this point, according to Francis King, the chiefs of the Amoun Temple were addicted to mediumship and astral travel. Their interpretation of the Golden Dawn techniques of astral