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 add 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.
Source: Kabbalah Society
