The Ordo Templi Orientis was co-founded by Theodor Reuss, a member of the german secret service. O.T.O. is a magical group practising tantric sex magic, kabbalistic rituals and drug experimentation. On April 21, 1912, twelve years before the founding of MGM, Aleister Crowley was appointed National Grand Master General of O.T.O. for Great Britain and Ireland. In 1925 Crowley became Outer Head of the Order(OHO).

Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) (Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) is an international fraternal and religious organization. For its teachings and principles of organization, it was the first organization to accept the Law of Thelema, as re-presented by Crowley, which is expressed as ÒDo what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.Ó

In the early 1940s the U.S. based O.T.O. Lodge, Agapé, was led by 'Jack' Parsons (1914-1952), a Los Angeles based rocket sciententist. Parsons was co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JLP) with Ed Forman. Along with Forman and Frank Malina the 'suicide squad' tested rocket fuel in the Mojave desert and developed a successful rocket technology which was taken up by the US Military at the end of WW2. During his early years, when Parsons dreamt of space travel to the moon, he developed a relationship and exchange of ideas with german rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.

The O.T.O. structure is initiatory, with a series of degree ceremonies, which the U.S. Grand Lodge, Ordo Templi Orientis states is similar to that of Freemasonry. The O.T.O. also includes the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica or Gnostic Catholic Church, which is the ecclesiastical arm of the Order. Its central rite, which is public, is called Liber XV, or the Gnostic Mass. O.T.O. claims over 3000 members in 58 countries; about half of these are in the United States.