This is all hypothetical of course and the OTO is such a small group the chances of any one here actually running into this is extremely small.
Not as small as you think.
Honestly, the thing that bothers me the most, and this is just a personal moral issue is the fact they practice sex magick.
This is a slippery slope here. What most people think when they see this is, "Orgiastic Rites", or "Orgy at Bob's house, bring the Prayer Book!" when I can tell you this is not the case, you kind of have to look at this in context.
Let us look at the big picture first. To Thelemites, each person has what is known as a Holy Guardian Angel. This Angel is their link between their deepest self and the Divine. The Great Work of most Thelemites is obtaining a conversation with this link usually through the use of meditation, ceremony, and ritual. When all three of these performed together, it is loosely known as magick (notice the "k" to differentiate that between stage magic). Now, this Knowledge and Conversation with your Holy Guardian Angel is necessary for fulfilling one's True Will. (Thelema is Greek for Will) Once this has been achieved, you have made a solid connection with the Divine and extinguished your internal conflicts, sort of like the Buddhist Nirvana. Thelema does nothing to define God or the nature thereof, but instead admonishes one to define that for yourself, not only identify it but reach for it and grasp it.
Now, where does the sex come in? Well it serves two purposes.
First, as you could imagine, obtaining the Knowledge and Conversation with your HGA is pretty difficult. The loss of connection with your material self achieved before and during orgasm is a pretty pure state, it is then when your mind is empty, focused, and purposed and (as I see it) closer to the divine spark that is in us all. If you have a hard time believing this, next time you are "going at it", as you are focusing on the moment, notice that your internal dialogue is shut off. Then start thinking about mundane activities like your drive to work or what you need to get at the grocery store and notice the switch from that focused state to a distracted state. (Which, as stated by someone who posted above, generally a Tantric concept)
Once a Thelemite has cultivated, or at least experienced, this shift, they could probably do it outside of the bedroom and employ it in their "prayers".
Secondly, it serves as an allegory, among other things, for union, which is something all Thelemites strive towards. You know, uniting the polar principles of Male/Female. Now, interestingly enough, there was a big issue over homosexuality and whether or not it could serve as proper allegory for the union of the Self and the Divine. I do not know for sure if this issue was ever resolved, but I know that there were vocal opinions from both sides.
Now, I would like to state that I do not consider myself a Thelemite.
That being said, I do think that any Brother interested in the esoteric portions of our Craft should really do himself a favor and study these paradigms, if for no reason other than so they could enlighten other brothers on internet forums! :biggrin:
Indecently, there is a very large and active OTO in Austin...
http://www.scarletwoman.org/
... and University of Texas' Ransom Center has quite a collection of Crowley artifacts.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/lfcrowley.html
http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00144.xml
