Green Lantern - Central vs Peripheral Will

Green Lantern is primarily a story about Will as harnessed by Cosmic Administration for effective intercession on behalf of creation. The movie’s cosmology presupposes two conflicting forces of entropy (Fear) and enthalpy (Will) vying for the destruction and exaltation of the manifest galaxy.

From the film: “Billions of years ago, a group of immortals harnessed the most powerful force in existence: the emerald energy of willpower. These immortals, the guardians of the universe, built a world from where they could watch over all of existence: the planet Oa. A ring powered by the energy of will was sent to every sector of the universe to select or recruit. In order to be chosen by the ring, one had to be without fear. Together these recruits formed the intergalactic peacekeepers known as the Green Lantern Corps...”

This “emerald” energy is regarded in occult Qabalah as the Intelligence of Will, which, when mastered, “acquaints one with the laws of perpetual motion” and “positions one to demonstrate the quadrature of the circle”. We shall see here shortly how this acquaintance and orientation expresses through our hero Hal Jordan, through his initiation into the Green Lantern Corps and his mastery of the heirloom ring. The Intelligence of Will is most handily shown in the 9^th key of the Tarot, namely The Hermit, who stands on high and “shines white light and wants to show how everything still turns to gold.”

Vital to note here is that following initiation, demonstration is the heroic action that redeems both humanity and earth. In this Hal Jordan is not unlike any genius that has ever graced the world of men. He is a brother to Leonardo de Vinci who demonstrates the quadrature of the circle through The Vitruvian Man, a model frequently mimicked by Hal in orb throughout the film. And it is in orb that many of the members of the Green Lantern Corps travel through space. Great merkabian chariots cut between stars on their missions to uplift the galactic symphony and crush the yellow fear wherever it arises, for Will is the creative urge of the Cosmos, and Fear stalls and stifles it.

The Bene Gesserit Littainy against Fear” found on page 19 of Dune by Frank Herbert reads:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

Our hero, Hal Jordan, is a test pilot whose father was killed in an accident when he was a boy. A numerological analysis of the name gives us the number 38/11: Force, manifest through man’s image-making faculties, produces justice (or dynamic equilibrium). This dynamic equilibrium is the demonstration of the quadrature of the circle, from which all creative potential arises.

In the Chinese internal martial arts (neijia) this effect is called “sung”. By definition sung is “a state in which muscles are relaxed, not limp, but not tense. There is sufficient muscular activity to maintain posture. There is also a slight extension of each joint in the body so as to open the joint, almost as though separating the bones. This creates a ‘connectivity’ essential in establishing peng jin (uprooting power). When done correctly there will be an increased flow of blood throughout the body...”

This “sung” is a poised alertness that facilitates spontaneous creativity. Cultivated through Zhan Zhuang (pole standing) alongside formwork (such as taijichuan’s long form or baguazhang’s walking circle) this state becomes the well of Will from which martial actions arise. Practitioners of these methods have no preconceptions of reaction in combat. They create at Will under the pressures of circumstance. The power of the Green Lantern is the same. Hal Jordan is granted this power to create instantly, at Will, instinctively or intuitively, in accord with the cosmic directive. He is chosen to become a theurgist, that is, to work as God works in the interest of justice. His will becomes unified with the Primal Will to good, which eternally creates and sustains the universe.

To fully understand Hal Jordan’s initiation as a member of the galactic executive branch, we much engage him at his origin. Our first glimpse of Hal is over the shoulder of a naked, sleeping beauty, symbolic of Nature and Nature’s Laws. She also reveals to us Hal’s orientation on the Qabalistic Tree of Life within Netzach (Victory), whose assigned color is green. Netzach is the world of desire, or ratzon (רצון) in Hebrew. This “desire” is identical with willpower, the quality of which is determined by the quality of the consciousness willing. Ultimately all will is the One Will; however, the expression of that will, and the role that will plays in the great scheme of cosmic unfolding, is contingent upon how closely aligned the individual will is with the Will of Divinity. In other words, our will may be “central” or “peripheral”.

Peripheral will is personal will detached from the One Will permeating all of creation. It is dispensable and temporal, and as such it creates a gnawing sense of isolation and fear in the hearts of those that wield it. Such is the will of the entity Parallax who challenges the Green Lantern Corps and defeats Abin Sur of Sector 2814.

In physics, a parallax is an apparent displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight. It is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. The term is derived from the Greek παράλλαξις (parallaxis), meaning "alteration". The entity Parallax was conceived when one of the ten Guardians on Planet Oa, named Krona desired to control the yellow essence of fear, and ultimately became the embodiment of fear itself.

Yellow is not the color of fear, but rather the color of the sephirah Tiphareth (Beauty) that serves the messianic role of mediating between the upper sephiroth and the lower sephiroth on the Tree of Life. The story of Krona is the crisis that ensues when one believes himself to be a separate individuated will and, through this false identification with temporal form, faces death. All fear is fear of death, and, in the end, it is Hal’s surrender to death that allows Parallax to be drawn past him into the Sun, where “death is swallowed up in victory (netzach).” (I Corinthians 15:54) It is time (Chronos/Krona) that gives birth to the illusion of death (Parallax) and subsequent fear, for through the passage of time all things undergo dissolution in entropy.

A dualistic alteration in perception is born when time attempts to control the Self at the heart of creation. This immortal Self is the singular “I” behind our eyes. It is free from time, but enters into time to experience itself. When time eclipses our immortal nature through misidentification, the false perception of death occurs and gives rise to fear. It is this fear and the perversion of false perception that creates the illusion of entropy.

The tenth Guardian, Krona, represents the sephirah Malkuth. This is the material world - the world of the senses. Problematically, Krona acted on his own accord without consent of the other Guardians representing the higher sephiroth of Yesod through Kether. It is when we view the material world outside the context of the other worlds that we lose perspective and fall prey to the misperception of death as an ending rather than a transformation.

So the stage is set for our dashing, mustang-driving, high-flying, “fearless”, maverick, protagonist Hal Jordan’s small wrecked life on Planet Earth, as he outmaneuvers droid planes and trades in his job to keep his ace ego intact. His employer Ferris Aircraft loses their lucrative contract with devious government, and he is displaced. His disorderly conduct and intimacy handicap leave him jobless and alone. It is in this bereft state that the ring sweeps him up in an orgonic whirlwind and delivers him to the dying Abin Sur, who bestows upon him the ring and the lantern, instructing him, “The ring, it chose you. Use its power to defend our universe. Become one of us... become a Green Lantern.”

To become a Green Lantern is to join one’s personal will to the One Will of the cosmic administration, whose sole purpose is to uphold galactic justice. This is not some pathetic self-donation whereby one surrenders personal ambitions to an ideal, which, of course, is always an attempt to glorify and immortalize the ego by identifying with some perceived outer all-powerful egregore in the form of cause, government, religion, philosophy, or a god or god-man. Initiation into the Green Lantern Corps is to be chosen and to embrace that destiny with courage and grit. It is the heroism of ancient myth as opposed to the relatively modern Dionysian self-sacrificial varieties.

While Hal Jordan is undergoing his verdant metamorphosis, his polar opposite undergoes his own transformation. Hector Hammond is infected by the yellow fear while examining Abin Sur’s corpse. In short time his mercurial proclivities are exaggerated to splendorous proportions as the alien DNA infiltrates his genes. Hector becomes hideously intellectual, albeit enslaved to the shadow of Tiphareth (Parallax). That Parallax reflects this holy shadow is indicated by its confinement to sector 666 at the beginning of the film. No number is inherently good or evil; however, the numeral 666 has become commonly identified with the vices of the Sun, namely pride and rebellion. The Sun is holy when it knows itself to be a vessel and a channel for light. The Sun is demonic when it believes that it is the source of that light.

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” ~ Isaiah 14:12-15

This fall is spiritual isolation. It is erotic exile, and is the secret of the 26^th Path of Wisdom on the Tree of Life and the 15^th Tarot Key: The Devil. It is called the Renewing Intelligence, and he who masters it “forces nature to make him free at his pleasure”. This is the power descending from Tiphareth to Hod, wherein the intellect is given the cleverness to circumvent natural processes. Technology, at large, is the dim light the devil shines, but that unholy glow often illuminates the universal mystery only enough to breed arrogance and self-importance amongst humans. In this they become blind to the fact that this knowledge is provisional and destructive without the higher lights of consciousness, wisdom, understanding, mercy, justice, and beauty.

In his bloated state of delusion, Hector manipulates Hal by threatening to inject Carol Ferris with the yellow genetic material from Parallax. Carol Ferris is Hal’s true love and symbolizes the supportive flow of shefa from the sephirah Chesed (blue Mercy) to Netzach (green Victory) via the 21^st path on the Tree of Life, associated with the Wheel of Fortune and the Intelligence of the Desirous Quest, which, when mastered, allows one “to change into gold not only all metals, but also the earth itself, and even the refuse of the earth”. It is Carol Ferris whose merciful influence changes Hal Jordan’s heart to merit wearing the Green Lantern ring. Once a philandering scallywag, she teaches him the value of intimacy and relational integrity. She teaches him the true meaning of courage, as the ability to “feel the fear and do it anyway”. And she inspires him towards the Beauty that awaits him beyond his fear of death. In all this, Hal becomes worthy of the ring he wears. Love makes us heroes.

Hal defeats Hector, as desire always trumps intellect, and lures Parallax away from Earth and into the Sun. He is nearly spent when his colleagues arrive to pull him from its gravitational pull. Hal has been reborn. He has conquered death and hell (or variations on those themes), and has earned the respect of the Green Lantern Corps. He is the first human to join their ranks, and in so doing ennobles his entire species in the eyes of the galactic administration.

^“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” ~ John 12:32

Go Green for the Win!