What's the difference between the AA and the O.T.O?
-
I realize this may be a difficult question to answer.
Here are some sub questions.
Is the reading material the same for both groups?
I've heard that the A.A. is not a social group, that it's strictly a student teacher set up, but don't people in the A.A. ever hang out and do social stuff?
I've heard that the A.A. is the "religious" side of the O.T.O. and that Crowley wanted them to be completely separate.
I know the O.T.O has public mass, does the A.A
Celebrate a mass as well?
Maybe one or more of you can shed some light on this -
Thinking about it further, I guess it's too simplistic to
say the A.A. is "religious" and the O.T.O. is not.
I guess one could argue that both could hold for lack
of a better word "religious" leanings.
Maybe both groups are promulgating Thelema, but from
different angles in hopes of liberating humanity. -
The OTO is a fraternal order, not a teaching organ per se. The A.:A.: is a teaching order, not a social organ per se. It is advised, but not forbidden, that students of the A.:A.: don't associate. Comparing notes, so to speak, could muddy the waters. The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), or the Gnostic Catholic Church, is the religious arm of Thelema you speak of. The reading lists vary from order to order and via specific lineage as well.
-
It might also be useful not to think of them as two "groups" to be compared and contrasted. The OTO is meant to meet as a group with the purpose of promulgating the Law of Thelema out into society generally while the A.'.A.'. is meant to sustain as an individual Path of spiritual training, dependent entirely on the Work of the individual under the watchful eye of his/her superior.
