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by Gregory Gilman
In this experience, the "Arrow," a symbol of one's focused and truly aimed personal awareness is powerfully released from the lower four spheres of the "Tree of Life," and sent shooting straight up along the path of the middle pillar toward Tiphareth and beyond.
A clearer way to describe this to students of the Tree of Life diagram, might be to say that it is the tension between the complimentary spheres of Netzach and Hod, (Themselves under the influences of the higher spheres of the Tree, and over the influences of the lower spheres of the Tree), which make up the "Bow," itself and it is these two spheres which hold the ends of the Bow's "String."
Now depending upon the interactions between the self of the human being, and the activity of these two spheres in connection with the spheres of Yesod, and Malkuth Below and of the spheres above, especially via the sphere of Tiphareth, the Bow String may either remain relatively tightly drawn or pulled down, at its middle point, to the sphere of Malkuth from the time of birth in a human being's incarnation, or it may get pulled super taught and be released from Malkuth sending the Arrow of self awareness up to the sphere of Tiphareth and beyond, along the path of the middle pillar, on a one way journey of "Spiritual Awakening."
That is a very simple way of looking at the idea, but in addition to the one clear shot of the Arrow released by the Bow, there is a lot of tentative stretching of the Bow and of the Bow Spring, before getting everything right.
Indeed a lifetime of human experience may be described as a series of fluctuations of more or less tension, and more or less movement both up and down, and/or side to side, of the self upon the Bow String.
The Bow even occasionally partially releases or has a "Test Release," in an incomplete way, with incomplete tension, sending the un-awakened self on a roller coaster ride up into more expanded consciousness, where it gets a glimpse of what may some day come to pass and what may someday more permanently be the perspective of the self's consciousness, only to then find itself falling back down into a state of more contracted awareness.
Like walking before we can run, it seems we also need to first "Hop," often a great many times, using the only partially taught Bow String, carrying the only partially aimed, and partially released from Malkuth, Arrow of self consciousness, only part of the way up toward the ultimate targets, before we get to the really perfect single shot from which there can be no possibility of complete back sliding or completely falling back down, for that expanding self which has been prepared for the journey of a "True Return," going ever higher up the Tree of Life.
It might also be correct to say, that getting the perfect shot may take the practice shots of many incarnations or personal lifetimes.
As a young self experiences the everyday physical world of Malkuth, it is usually the many alluring illusions and tempting emotional, mental, and physical possibilities of Malkuth, and the OUTWARD appearing physical world, toward which the self consciousness nearly totally looks and to which it is clearly most attracted.
In theory, it is only after a nearly endless cycle of having experienced the ravages and disappointments of everyday living, that the self begins to turn fatefully INWARD, toward the "Divine Light," within the "True Self," for the ultimate "Answers to Life. "
It may often take one last ultimately desperate and clinging grasp at the unreachable and unsustainable "Treasures," of Malkuth to completely pull the Bow String down perfectly taught, nearly to breaking, at which point the conscious self now thoroughly finished with its former empty fascination of looking for something permanent pleasing amongst the fading and changing shadows of the everyday world, honed and tempered for its long journey by inner and outer guides and experiences, finally steps perfectly into place upon the Bow String.
Now the combination of the perfectly taught String, and the perfectly aimed Arrow of the spiritually developing self, snaps free of the last vestiges of attachment to the formerly "Pleasingly Dull," state of earthly awareness, and the perfectly balanced pull of the Bow String, now perfectly releases the perfectly aimed Arrow in a moment of unity between the lower and higher "Wills," of the individual.
The Netzach and Hod spheres of the tree remaining ever in place and the self in motion upward now very truly balanced exactly mid-way between their energies, the Arrow cannot help but reach its first goal in Tiphareth. We might ad that the Arrow contains all the inner momentum it will need for completing the continued and ultimate journey through Tiphareth, onward up the middle pillar, across the abyss in the true realization and gnosis of the sphere of Daath passing through this sphere of "Secret Wisdom," ultimately reuniting it with its source, in and beyond the sphere marked out on our models of the Tree as Kether.
Woe unto he, or she, and unto all mankind, if the Arrow, nearly perfectly directed, and/or nearly perfectly released, should lodge somewhere off center in the tree, unable to simple fall back down to "Earth," in Malkuth.
But this is one of the reasons the we are encouraged to dispel fear and admonished to remember that certain guides do exists along the pathway toward realization. We are helped more than we may ever know.
What is the state of mind, one may easily wonder, of someone just about to leap onto the Bow String for the final perfect Flight?
While it is impossible to answer that question here, a partial answer may be found in the following words and in meditation upon them.
Let us consider those we have known, those we have observed, and those of our selves, who, having suffered a truly terrible and devastating loss, linger for a time in that shocked and shocking state of being between Life and Death.
How hard it is to accept, to agree to go on, when one realizes the Journey must be completed.
How hard it is to accept that even Death holds no escape, no answer except wasted time and effort and starting over in the next incarnation, toward the same goal in Life.
The beautiful child who has died, or the beloved partner who was lost, the pain of that last moment of apparent "Separation," when just a moment before they seemed able and willing to grow and to join with us forever in reaching for that goal of return which our own personal Arrows and Bow Strings alone can provide the release to.
One has only to consider these experiences very vividly for even a brief moment to feel the muscles of the chest and indeed those of the heart and soul tighten and convulse in a twinge of painful regret for "What might have been."
Two of the last of the Treasures of Malkuth to be finally surrendered upon the Altar of life experience, before we are ready to paradoxically go home "ALONE," to the "ALL-ONE," are the jewel of "Regret," and the jewel of "Love's Labor's Lost. " (The Learning Labors of Incomplete "Personal Love.")
My Friends I suggest to you most seriously and also most gently that it is release of these things, or their equivalents in each individual world, in each individual and personal life, which alone can "Trigger," the release of the Bow and break the back of that last support which holds back the Arrow from its glorious flight upon the Path of Return.
Hold not back the remotest bit of dust, from that Altar Stone, the tipping of which shall send you soaring upward.
When thou art truly ready to relinquish these things, the Compassion of that One into whose hands thou dost relinquish them, knowing their weight full well, shall fill thy last breath taken here Below, with that which alone may complete the Journey to that which awaits Above.
And so I end my curious little essay with these words: May You Boldly Grasp the Lowest Rung, of that Ladder Freely Flung, by All Those Who Have Gone Before, for the Next, and the Next, and the Next, 'Till All Are Come.
Gregory Gilman
