Heretics of Dune – Entry #5

     So who are the Heretics of Dune?  At this time, heresy on Dune is to speak or act against the “Divided God”; Leto II or the Tyrant.  Even calling him “Tyrant” was reflective of heresy.  Therefore, the Bene Gessert were certainly heretics.

     When Sheeana was orphaned out in the desert by a worm attack on her village, she had committed several acts of heresy although no one had been there to witness most of it.  She yelled at the worms, called it Shaitan (Satan … the devil).  And then she rode the worm, from instinct, to civilization.  This last part was viewed by the religious bureaucracy and they had even considered executing her for it.  Thank goodness they didn’t as she would turn out to be one of the most important people in securing the future for humans.

     Mother Superior Taraza had chosen a course of action that was considered highly questionable by many of her sisters.  She formed an alliance with the Bene Tleilax so they could get the secret of how to make an axlotl tank and use it to make Spice.  They did so by convincing the Tleilaxu that they were true believers in the Tyrant as God.  In fact, Taraza had gained insight into the Golden Path and had become a believer.  She knew that path may lead to the end of the sisterhood but met the goal of preserving human kind.  This, however, was not the kind of believer the Tleilaxu were.

     OK, back to important and relevant nuggets from the book.  Taraza had sent her close friend, Reverend Mother Odrade, daughter of Miles Teg and thus an Atreides, to Dune to be Sheeana’s teacher.  It was also Odrade’s job to hook the Bene Tleilax.  As part of demonstrating Sheeana’s power in order to establish and hold the power she had over the true believers, Odrade arranged a worm ride into the dessert with Tleilaxu Master Waff and Sheeana to command the worm.  They left from Dar-es-Balat where Leto II kept his records.  The worm that came to Sheeana’s call ended up taking them to the long lost Sietch Tabr!  And there Odrade discovered the fabled super-cache of Spice.  Again, such a masterful weaving of the story from the long past to the present and then to the future.  For on the walls of the cavern, Leto II had left a message meant specifically for Bene Gesserit to find.

     “MY WORDS ARE YOUR PAST,

     “MY QUESTIONS ARE SIMPLE.

     “WITH WHOM DO YOU ALLY?

     “WITH THE SELF-IDOLATORS OF TLEILAX?

     “WITH MY FISH SPEAKER BUREAUCRACY?

     “WITH THE COSMOS-WONDERING GUILD?

     “WITH HARKONNEN BLOOD SACRIFICERS?

     “WITH A DOGMATIC SINK OF YOUR OWN CREATION?

     “HOW WILL YOU MEET YOUR END?

     “AS NO MORE THAN A SECRET SOCIETY?”

(Heretics of Dune, p. 301-302)