Maon (מעון, ‘Dwelling’) is the fifth of the seven celestial heavens (Heavens of Assiah) enumerated in Jewish apocalyptical and Merkabah literatures. The name shares a root with ma‘on (“habitation”) and appears in the Hebrew Bible as a divine title—Ma‘on is a poetic name for God as a dwelling-place (Deuteronomy 26:15; Psalm 68:6). In the ascension narratives that later crystallise into the hekhalot tradition, Maon is the heaven where the storehouses of snow and hail are kept, and where the souls of the righteous are stored awaiting the resurrection.

Position on the Tree of Life

On the Tree of Life as arranged in Liber 777, Maon corresponds to the fifth Sephirah, Geburah (Strength). The scale step is 5. Just as Geburah imposes severe judgment and limiting form upon the outflow of Chesed, Maon is the heaven that serves as the ‘dwelling’ of severe divine rigour—the place where the divine decree is sealed and the souls are judged before their assignment to the chambers of the dead.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

In the 777 system, the Sephirah Geburah is attributed to Mars. Maon, as the Geburah heaven of Assiah, therefore corresponds to the material-world manifestation of Mars: active, destructive force, and the separation of the worthy from the unworthy. The celestial storehouses of snow and hail (already symbols of divine wrath in Job 38:22) align with this martial, purgatorial quality.

Historical context

The earliest surviving enumeration of seven heavens appears in the Apocalypse of Moses (also called the Life of Adam and Eve, c. 1st–2nd century CE), where Maon is given as the fourth heaven. In the Testament of Levi (2nd–1st century BCE), the visionary ascends through seven heavens; there Maon is the third, the one that holds the fire, snow, and ice that await the day of judgment. The Rabbinical tractate Chagigah 12b fixes the seven heavens in a system later adopted by the medieval Kabbalists (e.g., Zohar I, Bereshit 38a; Moshe Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim). In that standard list—from lowest to highest—Maon is the fifth: Vilon, Raquia, Shechaqim, Zebul, Maon, Makhon, Araboth. The erudite Midrash Konen elaborates that Maon is the dwelling-place of the companies of ministering angels who recite the Kedushah (the thrice-holy hymn) only after the souls of Israel have recited it below. This ‘dwelling’ is thus not a passive abode but the site where the efficacy of earthly worship is ratified in heaven.

In the table

In Liber 777, column XCIII (row 5) lists Maon as the specific heaven of Assiah that reflects the severity and judicial firmness of Geburah. It stands between the mercy-heaven Makhon (Chesed) and the beauty-heaven Shechaqim (Tiphereth), completing the descent of form into the world of action.