Manly Palmer Hall
The Qabbalistic Scheme of the Four Worlds.
In the above chart, the dark line between X 3 and A 1 constitutes the boundary of the original dot, while the concentric circles within this heavier line symbolize the emanations and worlds which came forth from the dot.
As this dot is contained within the outer rings X 1, X 2, and X 3, and represents the first establishment of individualized existence, so the lower universe symbolized by the forty concentric circles within the dot represents the lower creation evolved out of and yet contained within the nature of the first Crown, which may be called God, within whom the divine powers, the celestial beings, the sidereal worlds, and man, live and move and have their being.
It is highly important that all the rings within A 1 be considered as being enclosed by the primitive dot, which is itself encircled by the great ring X 1, or the Auric Egg of AIN SOPH.
Each ring includes within its own nature all the rings within itself and is included within the natures of all the rings outside of itself. Thus, A 1 - the primitive dot controls and contains the thirty-nine rings which it encloses, all of these partaking of its nature in varying degrees according to their respective dignities.
Consequently, the entire area from A 1 to D 10 inclusive is the original dot, and the rings symbolize the divisions which took place within it and the emanations which poured out from it after its establishment in the midst of the abstract nature of AIN SOPH.
The powers of the rings decrease towards the center of the diagram, for power is measured by the number of things controlled, and each ring controls the rings within it and is controlled by the rings outside of it.
Thus, while A controls thirty-nine rings besides itself, B 1 controls only twenty-nine rings besides its own. Therefore, A 1 is more powerful than B 1.
As the greatest spiritual solidity, or permanence, is at the circumference and the greatest material density, or impermanence, is at the center of the diagram, the rings as they decrease in power become more material and substantial until the center sphere, D 10, symbolizes the actual chemical elements of the earth.
The rates of vibration are also lower as the rings approach the center. Thus, the vibration of A 2 is lower than A but higher than A 3, and so on in decreasing scale towards the center, A 1 being the highest and D 10 the lowest sphere of creation.
While A 1, the ruler of creation, controls the circles marked A, B, C, and D, it is less than the three rings of AIN SOPH - X 1, X 2, and X 3 - and therefore bows before the throne of the ineffable Creator from whose substances it was individualized." [An encyclopedic outline of masonic, hermetic, cabbalistic and rosicrucian symbolical philosophy, c. 1928, by Manly Palmer Hall]