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themselves, while AIN SOPH Itself is infinite because It is the ultimate condition of all
things. The circular shape given to AIN SOPH signifies that space is hypothetically
enclosed within a great crystal-like globe, outside of which there is nothing, not even a
vacuum. Within this globe--symbolic of AIN SOPH--creation and dissolution take place.
Every element and principle that will ever be used in the eternities of Kosmic birth,
growth, and decay is within the transparent substances of this intangible sphere. It is the
Kosmic Egg which is not broken till the great day "Be With Us," which is the end of the
Cycle of Necessity, when all things return to their ultimate cause.

In the process of creation the diffused life of AIN SOPH retires from the circumference
to the center of the circle and establishes a point, which is the first manifesting One--the
primitive limitation of the all-pervading O. When the Divine Essence thus retires from
the circular boundary to the center, It leaves behind the Abyss, or, as the Qabbalists term
it, the Great Privation. Thus, in AIN SOPH is established a twofold condition where
previously had existed but one. The first condition is the central point--the primitive
objectified radiance of the eternal, subjectified life. About this radiance is darkness
caused by the deprivation of the life which is drawn to the center to create the first point,
or universal germ. The universal AIN SOPH, therefore, no longer shines through space,
but rather upon space from an established first point. Isaac Myer describes this process as
follows: "The Ain Soph at first was filling All and then made an absolute concentration
into Itself which produced the Abyss, Deep, or Space, the Aveer Qadmon or Primitive
Air, the Azoth; but this is not considered in the Qabbalah as a perfect void or vacuum, a
perfectly empty Space, but is thought of as the Waters or Crystalline Chaotic Sea, in
which was a certain degree of Light inferior to that by which all the created [worlds and
hierarchies] were made." (See The Qabbalah.)

In the secret teachings of the Qabbalah it is taught that man's body is enveloped in an
ovoid of bubble-like iridescence, which is called the Auric Egg. This is the causal sphere
of man. It bears the same relationship to man's physical body that the globe of AIN
SOPH bears to Its created universes. In fact, this Auric Egg is the AIN SOPH sphere of
the entity called man. In reality, therefore, the supreme consciousness of man is in this
aura, which extends in all directions and completely encircles his lower bodies. As the
consciousness in the Kosmic Egg is withdrawn into a central point, which is then called
God--the Supreme One--so the consciousness in the Auric Egg of man is concentrated,
thereby causing the establishment of a point of consciousness called the Ego. As the
universes in Nature are formed from powers latent in the Kosmic Egg, so everything used
by man in all his incarnations throughout the kingdoms of Nature is drawn from the latent
powers within his Auric Egg. Man never passes from this egg; it remains even after
death. His births, deaths, and rebirths all take place within it, and it cannot be broken until
the lesser day "Be With Us," when mankind--like the universe--is liberated from the
Wheel of Necessity.

THE QABBALISTIC SYSTEM OF WORLDS

On the accompanying circular chart, the concentric rings represent diagrammatically the
forty rates of vibration (called by the Qabbalists Spheres) which emanate from AIN