These rituals are really old. The hermaphrodite worship is mentioned in the Gnostic texts found in Nag Hammadi.
Gnostics like many before them believe in Gnosis, direct knowledge of god.
This can be achieved through meditation, rituals, drugs and so forth.
Once the teaching becomes corrupted by feeble minds it turns into perversion.
The underlying theme here is to become divine, power is the core essence.
Gnosis itself, union with the divine, produces a child on the physical level.
On a mental level it removes ignorance and conflict. If one goes into this state "corrupted" the understanding will also be corrupted.