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The Numerology Perth story continues below and includes
a detailed history of the pioneering Perth Numerologists.

Numerology Perth (1916 to 1953)

The rest of this page is devoted to the pioneering Perth Numerologists.

The Numerology Perth story begins in 1916 with one of the founding organisations that actually gave women a leading role during spiritual services in Perth – the New Thought Center. Performing at one of these services was a young singer, Grace Holder, with her heart set on an Opera career who would return in 1934 to present one of the most engaging Numerology lectures in Australia and who work tirelessly against Family Violence against women for her entire life.

The Numerology Perth story also follows another woman, Elsie Port, who after meeting the world’s most famous numerologist, Julia Seton, travelled to America to become a Doctor and lifetime student of natural therapies and returned to Australia fourteen years later to become one of Perth’s pioneering Numerology, Naturopathy and Chiropractic women.

You’ll also discover the inspiring story of a Perth Numerologist, nurse and health educationalist, Sister Lillion Evans, who travelled Australia and spent her two years in Perth during the 1930s lecturing on Numerology and founding The Nature Cure Home. In contrast to Sister Evans, I also dig into who was behind The Institute of Numerology Perth, a little-known enterprise and its connection to some of the more dubious Perth Numerologists.

The Numerology Perth story is one that, more than other states, is closely linked to the history of colour therapy and chromopathy. The vibration of numbers and colours being related in the early schools of Numerology thought. Our story concludes with Pearl Negal, a strong female character in the Perth Theosophical Society and an important Perth Numerologist during the 1940s and 50s.

New Thought Centre – Perth Numerology Classes (1910s)

The Numerology Perth story begins with the New Thought Centre which occupied a large lecture hall upstairs in the two-storey building at 140 Barrack Street, Perth which is now the Adina Apartment Hotel. The building is no longer there, it was the Strand Restaurant and Magic Apple in the 1980s and was next door to the Centenary Buildings (Strombecker Hobby Centre 70’s/80’s) which in turn was next door to the Railway Hotel (1847 to 1992). The New Thought Centre Perth was formed in 1915 and was one of the new up and coming organizations (of its time) that was allowing women to lead and speak in front of spiritual congregations. Therefore, I’d like to preface this article by pointing out that both the Numerology Perth story and the building at 140 Barack Street are closely linked to those of the pioneering Suffragette, Spiritualism, and even Temperance movements in Perth during the early 1900s.

During the 1910s, the Building at 138-140 Barrack Street was split into two street fronts and a large lecture hall upstairs.

– 140 Barrack Street was divided into rooms and home to the Women’s Service Guild, the Girl Guides Association Headquarters, Free Trade and Land Values League, Australian Natives’ Association and the New thought Centre.
– 138 Barrack Street was occupied by an old-fashioned tailor shop, Edward Berry who would retain that location into the 1960s.
– The large lecture hall upstairs was home to the New Thought Centre Perth and was often lent to the Women’s Service Guild, Girl Guides, Child Welfare Burea, Metropolitan Floral Club, Women’s National Movement, the Strength of Empire temperance movement, Women’s Commonwealth Patriotic Association, WCTU.

In 1916 the regular Saturday services at the New Thought Center would usually contain a consecration service, a healing circle, a musical soloist, and continuation lectures ranging from prayer to prosperity and varied other metaphysical topics depending on the speaker. However, on a dull and cheerless evening in May 1916, the new Thursday services were in their second week and a very special meeting in the Numerology Perth story was about to occur upstairs at the New Thought Center for two very important reasons, the second of which I will get back to later in this article.

The topic for this particular week’s continuation lecture was Numerology, the first record of a Numerology lecture in Perth’s history. This lecture would have followed Mrs. L. Dow Balliet’s “Number Vibration” system as outlined in ‘the’ foundation book of Western Numerology – “Success Through Vibration” (1906).

The Pivotal Australian Event for Perth Numerologists (1920s)

The Balliet system is a Pythagoras based system of Numerology which was originally referred to as “The Science of the Vibration of Names and Numbers” by Mrs. L. Dow Balliet until her friend and two times visitor to Australia, Dr Julia Seton gave it its modern name of Numerology in 1907.

Dr. Julia Seton missed Perth on her first Australian tour in 1916, but many Perth women made the journey to see her in Adelaide, some even followed her back to America. Julia Seton did eventually make it to the Perth upon her return to Australia in January 1922, lecturing at the Literary Institute Hall. A few days later, one of her travelling companions, Miss Corrine La Tarte gave a free lecture on “Numerology: The Science of Numbers” at the Theosophical Hall (192 St George’s Terrace).

As you will discover later in this article, Dr. Julia Seton’s visits to Australia is the pivotal event in the Numerology Perth story and also serves as the most influential moment in the; Numerology Melbourne, Numerology Adelaide, Numerology Sydney and Numerology Hobart articles on this website.

Mail Order Numerology (1930s)

By the 1930s, Numerology in Perth was more often a matter of interacting with Newspaper ads which promised character analysis and Numerology charts via a mailing address in return for your birthdate and a postal note or stamps as a form of payment. These ads were not placed in the West Australian newspapers (including the Kalgoorlie Miner) by Perth Numerologist, they were mostly living in other Australian cities. Many of these dubious mail-order Numerologists (predominately male) also promised lottery and horse race winnings and often used exotic titles like “Nadir Shah – The Persian Occult Numerologist.” Nadir Shah placed Numerology adverts in the Western Mail while based in Sydney asking for 4 shillings per reading (by postal note) when you could go to a Perth Numerologist (which often included in-person counselling) for 1 shilling. He most likely took his pseudonym from the famous and powerful Shah of Persia (1736-1747). Shah is a title only given to emperors, kings, princes, and lords of Iran.

The so-called “Professor Onerios” adverts were placed in all Australian Newspapers by a Hobart Numerologist (except his home state of Tasmania) from 1938 to 1946. For 1 shilling he would provide lucky numbers to aid lottery wins. Professor Onerios never operated as Hobart Numerologist.

Grace Holder – Perth Numerology Teacher (1930s)

Grace Holder seems to have been formed by almost every organisation that had rooms at 140 Barrack Street.

» During the early 1900s, she was a leading figure in the Girl Guides Movement of Perth who had their Headquarters at 140 Barrack Street.
» In 1916 she was performing as a singer (soloist) during the time of the New Thought Centre Perth’s Numerology lectures upstairs at 140 Barrack Street.
» In 1919 she was the W.A. organiser of the “Strength of Empire” movement and present at its meetings also held upstairs at 140 Barrack Street.

In 1934 the more transparent Graccio Leggo Houlder (known in Perth as Grace Holder) gave one her famous “illustrated lecture series” with projected colour picture slides focussed entirely on Numerology. Returning in 1933 from her second extended lecture tour (1931) in the United States of America, Canada, England, and Mexico, Grace settled briefly in the Perth home of her parents Harry (1854-1936) and Grace(1862-1937) Holder at 109 Leonard’s Avenue, West Leederville. On the 2nd July 1934, she veered from her usual Temperance and Travelogue talks with a lecture entitled “Vital Numbers (numerology), Sounds, Notes and Colours” which was part of 12 lecture course on the occult.

Educated in England, Graccio Houlder was a famous Australian both in Perth, Sydney and across the United States. She was an adventurer, orator, prohibitionist, author and extensive world traveller including four extensive lecture tours across America. She was an approved ambassador of Australia and always travelled with credentials signed by the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, but her real pride and joy was an ever-growing collection of colourful slides depicting the unique flora, fauna and culture of Australia. A collection that she would showcase and add to wherever she travelled. Grace Holder worked for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (1915), she formed the Girl Guides society in Bunbury (1915) and Kalgooprlie (1916), she was the first Girl Guide Commissioner in Australia (1916), and was working towards an operatic and stage career when she performed a solo “O, Thou that Tellest” at the New Thought Center in Perth which was also holding Numerology lectures in that same year. She found her true voice in 1920 when she devoted herself tirelessly to the World Prohibition Cause.

1919 (Mar) – Miss Holder – WA organiser “Strength of Empire” movement – Anti-alcohol mothers appeal – meeting held at a Large lecture hall at 140 Barrack Street. There HQ was actually in the Brookmans Building.

In the 1920s she became involved with early suffrage societies and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and began her journeys to America where she stood alongside her Protestant friends fighting, learning and lecturing against alcoholism, family violence, and political corruption in the liquor trade. A hotly debated fight against the “wets” and the “drys”.

In May 1928, the S.S. Maunganui steamed into Sydney Harbour, en route from San Francisco, and the “Dry” movement in Australia was about to get a celebrity with first-hand extensive knowledge of the ‘benefits’ of Prohibition in America. Miss Holder championed that cause right up to the failed (1st of September) Australian referendum on prohibition.

In 1934 (28 May) she began an educational lecture course in the large lecture hall over the Skipper Bailey Motor Co’s premises at 900 Hay Street (between King and Milligan St). This educational series was heavily illustrated with a new collection of full-colour slides and included perhaps the most extensive coverage of metaphysical topics for its time.  Synopses of the lectures were made available at Albert and Sons Bookshop and the Perth Typewriter Co., Economic Chambers. Each lecture had an entry fee of 2/.

• Mon 28th May 1934
  – Popular Occult and Kindred Subjects.
• Mon 4th Jun 1934
  – Psychic Phenomena – Illustrated with lantern slide pictures and true stories of Psychic Research from Paris, London and the United States.
  Also “the orders of good and evil” – according to the Ancient Kabala – covering “white” and “black” magic.
• Monday 11th June 1934
  – Human Magnetism, how generated, retained, dissipated (fully illustrated with rare slide pictures).
  – Thought Dynamics – Thought Vibrations and Thought Forms.
  – Telepathy – Thought transference with hand-painted slides by overseas artists.
• Monday 18th Jun 1934
  – Astrology – Queen of Sciences (Alan Leo. Rosicrucian, Shakespeare conceptions fully illustrated).
  – Astrology – Your constitutional Cell Salts (based on Dr Carey works – Zodiac and Biochemic Cell Salts).
• Monday 25th June 1934
  – Cheirosophy – Science of the Hand with descriptions of the major types of hands.
• Monday 2nd July 1934
  – Vibrations, Numerology, Vital Numbers, Sounds, Notes, and Colours.
  – Reprojection of… Picture slide screening – Descriptive hands and symbolic head picture slides will be screened.
• Monday 9th July 1934 – title unknown
• Monday 16th July 1934
  – Colour – Its significance, meaning and application (illustrated with screen and chart pictures)
  – Screening of her set of Australian Nature colour pictures as used by her in the schools, colleges and universities of the United States and Canada.
• The last four lectures from Miss Graccio Houlder’s 12 lecture course were postponed due to the serious illness of her Mother (which possibly resulted in her blindness) and were to cover topics such as operative occultism, colour healing, (chromopathy), the human aura, and kindred philosophic.

Miss Graccio Houlder continued her Temperance and Suffragette crusade in Perth working as an active member of the Western Australia Housewives’ Association, the Radiant Health Club, the New Psychology Club, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (Mt Lawley-Maylands) which met at the Methodist Church Hall (41 Walcott Street).

Some of her other lecture topics over the years included:

•  – The Universe of Colour – Lantern lecture at Spiritual Psychology Church (1936)
•  – The melody of Colour – The major rays and other metaphysical  affirmations – Radiant Health Club (1937)
•  – Electroes “Drips and Drops”
•  – Round the world with trees. Knowing the world through its trees – (1937)
•  – Psychology of Colour – (1938)
•  – Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us – Salvation Army Hall, Fremantle (Oct 1938)
•  – A Night of Colour – Illustrated Entertainment
•  – The Grand Old Man of the Zodiac and his Handmaidens – Psychology Club
•  – Symphony of Colour – Spiritual Science Church – (1938)
•  – Affirmations – (1938)

Grace bridged the gap between Christianity and Spiritualism but always foremost was her Temperance calling and her campaign against the negative effects of alcohol on family violence. She was a life member of the Social Science Honour Society of USA and also collected and displayed flags from all the countries she visited. On the 13th June 1938, at which time having recently lost both her parents, she departed once more for America where she was still giving Temperance talks as late as 1947.

Grace Holder’s part in the Numerology Perth Story runs full circle. Due to her involvement with the Girl Guides Headquarters, which shared a building with the New Thought Center, she was actually performing as a young girl and a soloist that week for The New Thought Centre in 1916 when the very first public lecture on Numerology was given and maybe it was that very event that sparked her interest in Numerology and the Occult that she quietly carried with her while campaigning amongst the devout Protestants and Methodist of the worldwide temperance movement only to return on the 2nd of July 1934 (18 years later) to give her own Occult and Numerology lectures in Perth. Her story was truly a delight to discover and piece back together! I wish I could have discovered more.

Dr Elsie Port – Perth Numerologist and Natural Healer (1930s/40s)

Elsie Mabel Port was born into the lap luxury in a spacious house on 16 acres in the year 1874. As the 13th child of an aging Mother, she was a delicate child and at the age of 14 Elsie became very anaemic and started reading every health book she could get her hands on, thus began a thirst for natural health knowledge that would last fifty-six years until her death in 1948.

When her father died in 1911 she became the nurse to her mother and invalid sister and without support from her siblings, her finances dwindled away and life became very tough for Elsie who was still struggling with her own diminishing health. After her mother died, she did something that would not only shape the rest of life, it would place her at the most influential event in the Australian Numerology story. In February of 1916 she, like thousands of other Perth women, travelled interstate to attend a pivotal event in the Australian Numerology story.

Dr Julia Seton (the person who coined the term Numerology) was touring Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and setting Australian housewives on fire with ideas of spiritual leadership for women and “New Thought.” Elsie Port was at a crisis point with baffled Doctors persuading her to remove some of her vital organs on one side and her own natural health beliefs on the other. After a Julia Seton lecture on “Health and Power of the Mind,” Elsie was lucky enough to meet privately with Julia Seton who subsequently convinced her to come back to Colorado Springs in the United States with her.

Elsie Port arranged care for her sister and along with many of her female friends, promptly left for America. At the conclusion of the Summer (3 months), this inspired ensemble of Australian women all moved to New York where Elsie managed to get a position as Nurse at a prison hospital on Blackwell’s Island (now known as Roosevelt Island). After 4 months of strenuous work, Elsie became the Nurse for a prominent New York doctor. Eventually, she followed her friends back to San Francisco and juggled her nursing time between a child specialist (Dr Langley Porter), a heart specialist (Dr Meininger), and a nerve and female specialist (Dr Hertstein). She mostly visited her Doctor’s patients administering treatments such as the Dr Schott method of Nauheim Baths. At the suggestion of Julia Seton, Elsie also studied Chromopathy at Ernest Jack Stevens‘ Light and Colour Institute in San Francisco which offered an extensive curriculum of alternative therapies.

Struggling in this Male Dominated world and inspired by her progressive female friends, Elsie began studying towards her own degree. During these years she also became vegetarian and at the age of 48 was boarding at the college dorms. In contrast to this frugal existence, one of her nursing patients was an overweight multi-millionaire who lured her from her studies in 1924 and took her on a whirlwind tour of Europe in the height of luxury with a butler, chef, chauffeur and a handsome salary. In 1926 she returned to Los Angeles to finish her diplomas of M.C., D.C., and Ph.D and graduated with a master of Chiropractic and passed the state board of Chiropractic in California where she practised for several with many Movie Stars as her patients.

In 1927 Dr Elsie M. Port was invited by The Rosicrucian Society to accompany 80 members on a tour of Jerusalem and Egypt and on to Europe including Paris and England. Always on the lookout for natural cures, she managed to study some of the techniques employed at two of the largest sanatoria in Dresden, Germany.

In 1931, after spending 14 years living abroad, Elsie returned to Western Australia and offered private chiropractic appointments, diagnosis and treatments from 214 St, Georges Terrace.  In December of 1934, she took a six-month tour of China and Japan and upon her return began to tour Australia extensively; lecturing on health, diet, numerology, and colour therapy. In 1936 she took a lecture tour to South Africa, England and Scotland.

In 1937, Dr Elsie Port was invited to be a delegate of the principal speaker of a peace conference in America. She travelled on the Queen Mary, dined with the captain, was given the keys to New York City, had afternoon tea with Mrs Roosevelt at the White House and was one of the principal speakers at the conference in Los Angeles. This now-forgotten Perth Numerologist continued on her own lecture tour of America and Canada and presented at the World’s Fairs of San Francisco and New York.

In 1941 she came back to Australia to weather the Second World War immersing herself in a busy schedule of lectures, classes and private patients.  In 1946 she self-published her book “Road to Rejuvenation” which sold around 700 copies, mostly to attendees of her lectures. Her book received some scorn and ridicule from the newspapers and at the age of 72, even her most sceptical of critics remarked that she had the looks of a 50-year-old and must be lying about her age. In 1947 she made a permanent move to her beloved California and died a year later.

Most of Dr Elsie Port’s appearances were split into two lectures; one on Natural Health and the other on Psychology with the topic of Numerology featuring heavily. She will never be known as just a Perth Numerologist, but she was an extremely proficient and practised Numerology all her life from her first meeting with Dr Julia Seton in 1916, until her death in 1948.

Some of Dr. Elsie M. Port’s lectures in Perth were titled as follows:

• Prolongation of Health
• The Secret of Concentration and Meditation
• Rarest Possession
• Constructive Psychology
• Character Analysis and Numerology
• What Every Women Should Know About Herself, Her Husband and Her Child
• Character Analysis  Numerology
• Dreams and Their Mystic Meaning
• Cure of Insomnia
• Dreams Affected by Indigestion
• Numerology, Landing Your Lucky Day
• How to Find the Right Vocation and Develop Talents
• Your Talents
• Your Delineation
• Prosperity
• Winning Love
• Success and Fame
• Understanding Yourself and Others
• Women’s Life and Destiny (Women Only)
• Classes for Health, Diet, Character Analysis and Numerology
• Change Your Life, Bring Health, Success and Prosperity
• Acidosis and Autointoxication
• How to have normal blood and healthy Nerves
• Vitality Exercises for Nerves
• Chronic Constipation
• Digestion and Nerves
• Character Analysis and Numerology, Lucky Day, Vocation and Talents

Sister Lillion Evans –  (mid 1930s)

Sister Lillion Evens played a key part in the Perth Numerology story from 1935 to 1937. She, like each of our other two Perth numerologists above, was well supported by the “New Thought Centre,” and the Perth branch of the “Radiant Health Club.” She undoubtedly would have known her fellow Perth Numerologists Dr Elsie Port and Grace Holder and on 6th March 1936 Lillion headlined at Grace’s beloved Women’s Christian Temperance Union were Lillion spoke on the ill effects of alcohol with regards to a person’s health.

Perth Numerologist, Astrologer and Health Educationalist, Madame Lillion Evans didn’t adopt her nursing title of “Sister” until well into her Australian lecture tour shortly after she arrived in Adelaide in 1934 where she set up “The Friendship Center” a health institute in the Unley shopping strip at 132 Unley Road, just South of the Adelaide CBD.

Over a period of six years, Sister Lillion Evans travelled all over Australia and New Zealand lecturing on Numerology, Astrology, Psychology, Diet and their relationship on severe health issues. Wherever Lillion went she always stayed long enough to set up Courses, Institutes, Societies and  Convalescent Homes. She spent three years in Perth and along with her many Perth Numerology lectures she also opened “The Nature Cure Home” on the 28th of March 1936. This convalescent home and natural health college was situated on the corner of Broome Street and Salvado Street in Cottesloe, with spacious verandahs, airy rooms and accommodation for 11 guests.

Lillion Evans was a member of the Australian Trained Nurses’ Association (A.T.N.A) having trained at the Brisbane General Hospital. She also studied elocution at the Anclon-Chapman School of Elocution and Dramatic Art in Sydney (founded by Douglas Ancelon and Stella Chapman) and studied Shakespeare’s plays under the famous actor Walter Bentley at his Syndey Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Lillion would end most of her lectures with short and well-received recitals from Shakespeare and Dickens. After 1933 Sister Evans would always show her collection of colour tinted lantern slides of The Great Barrier Reef that she collected while visiting Hero Island which was a seven and a half hour boat trip on a small fishing boat out of Gladstone. She was one of the first tourists to stay on the island at the converted Turtle Factory. Lillion would often take these slides into schools as she travelled Australia on her lecture tours.

Outside of her time as a prominent Perth Numerologist, Sister Lillion Evans toured Cairns (1933), Melbourne (1933), Tasmania (1934), Sydney (1934), Adelaide (1935), Kalgoorlie (1935), and New Zealand (1939).

Lillion Evans wrote her 200-page book “The Gateway to Health” which was published in Auckland in 1938 by Dawson Print Co. Her approach to numerology was down to earth and she always related it to how an understanding of Numerology and the vibration of numbers could improve your health.

The Institute of Numerology Perth – (late 193os)

The Institute of Numerology (Perth branch) appeared out of nowhere in January of 1937 posting large expensive “Mail-order Numerology” adverts with its base in Orient House (Room 4), and all letters directed to P.O. Box 486G, Perth. They claimed to be the publishers of a “Numerology Monthly” magazine, but that also seems to be an exaggeration and was just a collection of pamphlets that were only available via mail order. By February the ads were specifically targeting horse racing punters. Darryl Weston was listed as the Institutes secretary and I suspect its only member and by June of 1937, just 6 months later, the organisation completely disappears.

Manya Karovna, who also appeared and disappeared around the same time as The Institute of Numerology Perth, also has a brief part in the Numerology Perth story. She first appeared on Radio 6WF, 6WA, 6GF with a regular 3:45 pm spot on Numerology. Both Manya Karovna and Darryl Weston’s Institute of Numerology both quote Cheiro (Count Louis Hamon) as a twenty-year association/teacher in their newspaper ads. Manya Karovna continued her Numerology spot on Perth Radio for 3 months. She also presented a public (3 shilling) ticketed lecture and was available for private Numerology consultations. Her P.O. Box was 1125 but her telephone B1541 was registered to a room in Orient House on William Street.

Count Louis Hamon, (1866-1936) known globally as CHEIRO, was born William John Warner in Ireland and took the name Hamon by deed poll. He travelled to India as a teenager to study Palmistry, Astrology and Chaldean Numerology and two years later set up his practice in London and became a palm reader to celebrities and royalty. In his 1927 book entitled “Cheiro’s World Predictions,” he accurately foretold the love affair and abdication of King Edward and Mrs Simpson as well as the Death of Kitchener at Sea. His clients included Mark Twain, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Edison, General Kitchener and King Edward VII (then Prince of Wales).

Miss Pearl Negal – Perth Numerologist and Theosophists (1940s/50s)

Miss Pearl Nagel was a devout Baptist Sunday School student in Perth from 1912 onwards. As a young woman in 1925, she began a Children’s Bedtime Story series on radio 6WF (ABC Radio Perth, then owned by Westralian Farmers Co-operative). It is around this time that she joined the Band of Hope, a Temperance society that predominantly educated and encouraged children to avoid alcohol as they grow up. In 1923 Pearl gave a talk to 100 boys at the Swan Boy’s Orphanage (which later became a high school boarding hostel for regional students – known as Swanleigh). In 1923 Pearl Nagel also began giving lectures at the Radiant Health Club in Perth.

Miss Pearl Nagel was an animal lover and lecturer for the British Union for Abolition of Vivisection. In 1942 Pearl devoted herself fully to The Perth Theosophical Society and began a long series of lectures on Reincarnation, Clairvoyance, Karma, Colour Vibrations and a broader understanding of Christianity. It is here that she becomes an integral part of the Numerology Perth story, with many of her lectures during the 1950s focussed on Destiny and Numbers.

Other Notable Perth Numerologists and Lectures

Madame Florence Jeffery visited Perth from May to July of 1937 lecturing on Numerology and other topics. She also visited Kalgoorlie on her way back to Melbourne and returned to Perth in 1946.

Madame Sergara-Anak was visiting Perth from July to October of 1938 and offered mail-order Numerology and Astrology horoscopes and readings for 2/6.

Madame Ilma started advertising a mail-order horoscope and Numerology chart to Perth and Kalgoorlie from October 1942 to January 1945 for 2/6 with appointments from 53 Stirling Street, Perth.

Mrs Penketham gave lectures on the Occult, Zodiac, Graphology, and Numerology in Perth at the Radiant Health Club and the Theosophical Society from 1941 to 1947.

Mrs E Shacklock also gave a talk at the Alliance Club in 1942 title “Numerology” She is possibly the famous Kalgoorlie socialite whose husband later became the Health Inspector for Midland Council.