478 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
of the nose where “The Silent Watcher,” the highest spirit,
has its seat.
These currents do not usually take one of the two paths
indicated in the diagram to the entire exclusion of the other,
but generally one path is traveled by the greater volume of
the sex-currents, according to the temperament of the
aspirant. In one who is seeking enlightenment along purely
intellectual lines the current travels particularly over the
spinal cord and only a small part goes over the path through
the heart. In the mystic who feels rather than knows, the
currents find their way upwards through the heart.
Both are developing abnormally, and each must
sometime take up the development he has neglected, so as to
become fully rounded. Therefore the Rosicrucians aim to
give a teaching that will satisfy both classes, although their
main efforts are expended in reaching the intellectually
minded, for their need is the greater.
This current of itself, however, even though it assumes
the proportions of a Niagara and flows until the crack of
doom, will be useless. But still, as it is not only a necessary
accompaniment, but a prerequisite to self-conscious work in
the inner World, it must be cultivated to some extent before
the real es ot eric training ca n begin. It will thus b e s een that a
moral life devoted to spiritual thought must be lived by the
aspirant for a certain length of time before it is possible to
commence the work that will give him firsthand knowledge
of the super-physical realms and enable him to become, in
the truest sense, a helper of humanity.
When the candidate has lived such a life for a time
sufficient to establish the current of spiritual force, and is
worthy and qualified to receive esoteric instruction, he is
taught certain exercises, to set the pituitary body in