Registered at G.P.O.,
Perth,
for transmission by post as a newspaper
PERTH, SATURDAY, JANUARY
23,
1937.
SIXTY-THIRD YEAR
The Grail Acquires Theosophical Temple SYDNEY AMPHITHEATRE TO BECOME CONVENT Strange Story of Order of Star of the East
;0 a messagc r eceived from Sydney last week, the amphiheatre built by the Order of the tai ot the East on Balmoral ,each, Sydney, has been put.diased by the Australian Catholic Association, and will be used as the Mother House in Australia by the Ladies ot the Grail. Strange Superstition. l'he building of the Temple u as one of the must curious regous ever undertaken in Australia. It was built k v one, Dr. Mary Rocke, for the tr,ler of the Stai of the East :did a Theosophical organisation. I t was located on Balmoral Beach, opposite the Sydney Heads, because the adherents of the sect believed that the second coming of Christ was imminent ii(1 that He would come, walk: ,g over the waters of the Harbour. into their temple. Hence it was built in the form of an amphitheatre to enable the faithful to witness the Second Corning. Disbanding of the Order. A voting Indian. Krisn Amur1. whom the Theosophists claim-
ed as the Messiah, was meanwhile being educated in London. W hen the time was at hand, however, for his coming, he calmly announced that, although he had a divine message for the world, he stood in no need of human agencies to assist him in its propagation. So the Order of the Star of the East was disbanded and the temple fell into disuse. Fashionable Religion. Prior to this disruption, however, Dr. Rocke, who had built t he amphitheatre, was travelling to England to obtain funds to complete the building. She died on the voyage. But Theosophy had become the mode among a number of Sydney wealthy citizens, and so gullible with pseudomysticism is the modern world, that people were actually induced to take out leases of seats in the amphitheatre over a period of 25 years. Those in the front row were leased at a £100 each, and those in the three back rows at 110 each. An Alleged "Vision." According to the report in the "Daily News" the purchase of
the Temple for the Grail came about through the dream (latcr "the vision-) of a woman member of the Order of the Star of t he East, who said she had seen a group of nuns praying and then an Archbishop standing with the nuns looking at the amphitheatre. Chili was by way of a delicate suggestion that the funds of heosophy were low, and the Lemple more ornamental than useful. A Real Temple. is the strange play ot circumstance that this building which was the centre for the propagation of the odd hotchpotch of Indian philosophy (called Theosophy) will now become a Catholic Convent, which will radiate Catholic culture and Apostolic activity. The amphitheatre will probably be employed by the Ladies of the Grail as a theatre for the production of those religious plays which have had such success abroad and which mark the revival of Catholic culture.
THE AMPHITHEATRE, FAC ING THE HEADS OF SYDN EY HARBO
UR.