It could be objected that if so, Nekudim is a level on the way to Atzilut, and we should count it between Akudim and Atzilut. Yet we said above (Opening 36 Part 2) that it cannot be counted as such, because if so, it could not be something that was afterwards negated. The answer is that this level cannot be counted together with the various levels of the lights of the branches of Adam Kadmon, because they do not come under the same category.
For the different levels of the lights are different levels of the Likeness of Man descending in a graded way from power to power – from a greater power to a lesser power. However, what we are talking about in the case of Nekudim is not a sequential development from above to below. Rather, the change of level is that of a single power that shifts from state to state (from the light of Tzur Tak, which is a Godly power, to the separate realms and beings, which exist as independent creations), and the difference between one state and another in the world of Akudim is not one of degree.