Shar is the seventeenth Heaven of Assiah, the material and active sphere of the lunar cycle. Its root, from the Hebrew shur or shar, carries the sense of a circle or a surrounding wall, imaging the moon's perfect, encompassing circuit and its dominion over the measure of time.

Position on the Tree of Life

Shar corresponds to the 17th Path of the Yetziratic Tree, the path of the letter Zayin (ז). This path links Binah (Understanding) to Tiphereth (Beauty), a vertical current of active intelligence. Zayin is the 'Sword' or 'Sceptre,' and its association with Shar implies that lunar flux is a sharp, dividing force—separating light from dark, month from month, and the phases of spiritual revelation.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

Within this schema, Shar is not simply the physical moon but the astrological influence of Levanah (the lunar sphere) as it operates in the lowest, densest world of Assiah. It governs the reflective, receptive, and cyclic qualities of the moon in material manifestation: tides, growth, gestation, and the subtle ebb of consciousness.

Historical Context

The concept of a lunar heaven named 'Shar' appears in late Hekhalot and Merkabah mystical texts, where the traveller ascending through the seven heavens or the seventy palaces encounters spheres of planetary governance. It belongs to the Qabalistic development of the Heavens of Assiah found in the Book of Concealed Mystery and later systematised by Mathers and Crowley in the 777 correspondences. Unlike the more abstract Sephirothic heavens (e.g., Shabbathai or Mazloth), Shar holds a specific astrological office: it is the immediate magical environment of the moon's power as it directly influences the physical world.

Shar is the assigned name for the 17th Path in the table of 777, bringing the lunar force into the detailed architecture of the Assiatic heavens.