We have already dealt with two of the points of revelation and have therefore considered the two which have reference to the first two initiations; these are taken upon the physical and the astral planes respectively. At the second initiation, the initiate begins for the first time (though in the most elementary form) to employ the will aspect and - in the revelation accorded - he takes a major step toward the third Initiation of the Transfiguration. This connotes the transfiguration of the personality and its liberation from the alluring imprisonment of the three worlds. Now he faces that great transitional initiation and is confronted with the revelation which has been expressed for its in the following words:

The Monad is to the planetary Logos what the third eye is to man.

These are mysterious words and can only be understood if brought into relation with the previous revelation, involving the Will and the Law of Sacrifice. It should be remembered that the Law of Sacrifice (in its destroying aspect) is dominant during the second, the third and the fourth initiations.

1. At the second Initiation of the Baptism, the control of [398] the astral body is broken; it is sacrificed in order that the intuition, the higher counterpart of the "propelling aspiration" (as it is sometimes called) may assume control.
2. At the third Initiation of Transfiguration, the control of the personality in the three worlds is broken in order that the Son of Mind, the soul, may be substituted finally for the concrete and hitherto directing lower mind. Again, through the Law of Sacrifice, the personality is liberated and becomes simply an agent of the soul.
3. At the fourth Initiation of Renunciation, the destroying aspect of the Law of Sacrifice brings about the destruction of the causal body, the soul body, in order that the unified soul-infused personality may function directly under the inspiration of the Spiritual Triad - the triple expression or instrument of the Monad.

The significance of these "destructive episodes which produce the freeing of the prisoner of the planet" (i.e., the divine, spiritual man) lies in the fact that, after the fourth initiation, the light of purpose is the sole controlling factor in the career of the initiate; he enters then upon a stage wherein he steadily approaches closer to the "center where the will of God is known." It is an elementary revelation of the divine Purpose which is given at the third initiation; only the first stage of that mysterious all-embracing Purpose is at that time revealed; the remaining six initiations progressively reveal (to the Master) the all-enfolding Purpose.

Earlier I told you that three words should be considered in relation to the Points of Revelation: Procedure, Location, Objective. All three of them are of use here in considering the nature of the impending revelation.

The recognition of these Points of Revelation falls automatically into two main procedures or planned processes:

1. The procedure carried forward under the impulse of the Law of Sacrifice which "destroys all hindrances, breaks down all impediments and removes all individual [399] obstacles, thus releasing the initiate into that vortex of force in which he learns the method of handling the planetary correspondence of that which he has individually overcome." These words should be carefully studied in relation to the second, the third and the fourth initiations.
2. The procedure carried forward at the remaining five initiations; in these initiatory processes there is a "spiritual absorption of the initiate into the circle and into the cycle of the Universal Mind"; the initiate is then "caught up and liberated into planetary fields of endeavor wherein the will must be employed as the Monad may direct."

You can see from the above how abstruse all this advanced teaching must necessarily remain - veiled and protected in order to protect and guard the initiate. This dual procedure in relation to the crucial moment in each of the initiations is always most scrupulously guarded. The moment "wherein the initiate, standing upon the point within the triangle and not upon the square," sees (in a flash of time) the great aligning procedure which will carry him from the immediate point of revelation on to the final glory, must and will be forever protected.