I have recently discovered an interesting titbit of information regarding Amoun Temple – the London based temple of the Stella Matutina, which was extant during the early part of the twentieth century. Specifically, what it used as its Vault of the Adepti.
Amongst the papers emanating from Amoun Temple was one written by Finem Respice (Robert Felkin) concerning the use of the Vault of the Adepti. The main body of the paper is identical with the version reproduced in Regardie’s Black Brick: however, it has a short but intriguing preface.
(It also has an after-word, describing the Third Order. I will not discuss this at this time, except to say that I consider Felkin’s take on it rather fanciful, and a perfect example of Floccinaucinihilipilification. I leave it here in case my readers get more from it than I did.)
Unfortunately we are unable for the present to have a permanent Vault, a permanent home for the Inner Order. It is the point at which I aim, and some day I hope we shall be able to afford an Inner Shrine.
Meanwhile, there is no reason why, when we are able for a few weeks to keep the Vault up, it should not be used by all who are eligible, and it has occurred to me that some remarks on its proper use may be appropriate at this time, as we do not intend to dismantle it till after Corpus Christi on June 15th. [1911]
G H Frater F. R. (Robert Felkin)
What this shows is that Amoun Temple did not have a permanently installed Vault of the Adepti. Instead, it appears that they only had one for a month or less each year, whilst the rest of the time it was either in storage or being used somewhere else (nb: this document is dated May 18th 1911, less than a month before Corpus Christi). During the short space of time that it was available, they worked all the Adept grades that were due that year, as well as the Corpus Christi Ceremony, in addition to affording time to Adepti to perform skrying in the Vault.
Quite apart from this document, which is in the archives of the Library & Museum of Freemasonry at Freemasons Hall in London, I have in my possession material from another source entirely which indicates that Amoun Temple worked all the Adept grades: Adeptus Minor 5=6; Adeptus Major 6=5; Adeptus Exemptus 7=4; as well as the Transmission of the Etheric Link. I presume that they must have done so using this arrangement: working them in a temporarily-installed Vault whilst they had it available. (I have seen no evidence that they worked the 8=3 and 9=2 grades, but that might be just be a shortcoming of the source of my data.)
This suggests a possible solution to modern Golden Dawn temples. Ideally of course one ought to have a permanently-installed Vault of the Adepti, but this implies that one is fortunate enough to have the venue suitable enough to house it. However, Amoun Temple itself only used a temporary Vault – and this was the temple of which no lesser person than W B Yeats was an alumni!
Unfortunately, Amoun Temple also listed Christine Marie Stoddard amongst its members, so one could argue that Amoun’s temporary Vault didn’t work 100% of the time. 😏
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Aside from the later SM Smaragdum Thalasses Temple in New Zealand, none of the original Temples, whether GD or SM or even the AO had a “permanent” Vault.
Even the Vault used by Isis-Urania was not a “permanent” Vault. All of these Vaults could be, and were at various times taken dawn and stored (usually in the same area as where it was erected. Though it does seem that Isis-Urania kept their Vault up for an extended period of time if one considers that amount of time that people like Florence Farr spent in theirs.
The Amoun Vault was likely up more than just around Corpus Christi. There are those who where Initiated into 5=6 and above (not to mention some of the other ritual work conducted in the SM Vault). But it is clear that it was not up continually for use for than a few weeks at a time during the year.
I suspect that most modern Temples do not have the space available to have a “permanent” Vault up, and must back do with a portable one that can be set up and broken down as needed. Of course, the vary act of creating a Vault in the first places is a tremendous effort for any group to undertake, and this is not just in reference to the Walls, but to the Pastos, the Altar, the Cross of Obligation, and other required regalia and implements for the Chief Adept, 2nd and 3rd Adept, and any other attending and participating Adepti.
Good post. The 8=3 Grade was indeed worked and in 1916 Felkin and two other SM members actually initiated Westcott into this. A couple of months prior they had “put him through” the 5=6, 6=5, 7=4 and the Etheric Link. Details of this are found in Westcott’s ACTA diaries held at SRIA in London.
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