The Emerald City represents the mythic "World Navel" of Oz: the source of all power and/or illusion, and the dispenser of both good and evil. As Campbell explains, only from the World Navel can the successful hero bring the liferenewing energy, whether an abundant harvest or a manifestation of grace. Hence, Emerald City is green, the color of life and also that of magic. However, since the World Navel is the source of all existence and issues in all the paradoxes of existence, the ruler of the World Navel is sometimes a trickster like the Wizard of Oz—"to God, all things are fair and good and right, while men hold some things wrong and some right." The World Navel is, therefore, as much a seat of illusion as it is of reality: the reality of God.....
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