according to r. ellwood, by the time felkin first visited new zealand in 1912 he was already a 32° freemason, one of the highest to visit the country thus far. but according to k. edney of the new zealand sria, felkin's interest in freemasonry was probably slight; he was never master of the lodge nor joined the holy royal arch, and it is unlikely that he joined any higher degrees; his motive for joining freemasonry and the sria seems to have been to gain credibility with continental occultists and contact members of the original rosicrucian society. anna sprengel, a member of this fabled german society of nearly god-like adepts, had allegedly warranted the founding of the golden dawn, and felkin believed that she and her order still existed deep under cover in germany, along with the tomb of christian rosencreutz. in search of this group he and harriet travelled to europe in 1906, 1910 and 1914, and on one of these trips he met with rudolf steiner and claimed to have contacted other rosicrucian adepts. felkin considered steiner to be an extremely high initiate, and after their meeting incorporated elements of anthroposophy into his practice, including homeopathy.