Part Four: Initiation 
This next part will provide a more structured view of the working out of the evolutionary process that we are involved with.This in turn will provide a more objective view of that process which is by nature subjective. Each of the initiations represents a milestone on what is termed “the path”, and as the name implies each is the beginning of a new phase.
Man is involved in a life process of many hundreds of incarnations that extend over a total span of millions of years. During this entire period of time he has been perfecting the separate parts of his being, his bodies of consciousness. In the initial phase of his evolutionary journey he worked for millions of years to perfect his physical form, and subsequently his astral body, but over a lesser period of time. In the final phase of this development as relating largely to the mental vehicle, he passes through a series of five initiations that take place over a span of perhaps twelve incarnations.
The initiations are presented in the Bible as representing the life of the disciple Jesus. Where fact and allegory diverge is left to the reader and Biblical scholars.
The First Initiation
Termed the “Birth”, finalizes the development of the physical body. This process relates to the physical “appetites”.
The Second Initiation
Termed the “Baptism”, finalizes the development of the emotional nature of man as relating to the astral body.
The Third Initiation
Termed the “Transfiguration”, finalizes the personality aspect as relating to the mental body.
The Fourth Initiation
Termed the “Renunciation”, where man passes out from under the protection and guidance of the soul.
The Fifth Initiation
The “Revelation”, where man completely breaks his ties with the physical plane existence, and begins his new life in the spiritual worlds.
Because these initiations all occur on the subjective planes they are outside the sensory awareness of man, nevertheless he is consciously aware of them as they may occur in a dreamlike state. While he is also aware that this has somehow changed his life, there is no carryover of this knowledge to a new life experience, the new page is blank.
As the course of initiations proceed, each of the bodies of consciousness is progressively refined over a series of lifetimes. This is also to say that the deva lives inhabiting those planes and subplanes are being progressively replaced with ones of finer, and more energized substance for the cells of our body are constantly renewing themselves. In this process we say that the subplanes are being successively mastered as they become built with the new level or quality of deva substance, and the changes are visible to the psychic viewing the aura. So, in this process it is etheric substance of the subtle bodies that is involved while the dense physical body changes but grudgingly.