Although the story for Frank Herbert’s Universe of Dune takes place some 20,000 years into
mankind’s future, many of the prominent religions found across the universe can be
traced back to ancient Earth.
Religious motivations prove to be a dominant factor in much of what happens throughout
the Frank Herbert’s saga and in this video I’d like to discuss a few of the main religions
in Dune and how they formed the ideologies of their followers.
Spoiler warning as I will be discussing a few details regarding these religions that
occur throughout the Dune series.
At the time that the first Dune novel begins, the official religion of the Known Universe
is a belief system based on a book known as the Orange Catholic Bible.
This book is essentially an amalgamation of all significant religious thought in human
history with its primary religious doctrines originating from ancient Earth.
Some of the religious groups who contributed to the Orange Catholic Bible were adherents
to the Maometh Saari, Mahayana Christianity, Zensunni Catholicism, and Budislamic traditions.
The Orange Catholic Bible was produced in the aftermath of the Butlerian Jihad, a war
which saw the banishment of all machines made in the likeness of the human mind.
The supreme commandment of the book is: "Thou shalt not disfigure the soul."
This commandment highlights the need to retain the essence of what makes one human.
The need to find a balance between animal instinct and machine-like thoughts and actions.
The OC bible is also known as the Koranjiyana Zenchristian Scriptures, the Accumulated Book,
and the Zenchristian Navakoran.
Adherents to the OC Bible also referred to themselves as "the followers of the fourteen
sages".
Within Orange Catholicism, the concept of God is understood to be a Supreme being, composed
of a male-female-neuter trinity.
This being is also interpreted as Buddallah or the horned goddess and feminine principle
of space known as the Greatmother.
The Great Mother represented the feminine face of the trinity who also holds many other
names across the imperium.
The belief in this matriarchal figure is secretly supported and utilized by the sisterhood of
the Bene Gesserit to strengthen their doctrine with the prospect of producing the mother
of the Kwisatz Haderach from among the sisters of their order.
The Bene Gesserit, while claiming not to be a religious institution, are steeped in ritual
mysticism, using religious language and teachings as a cover for their clandestine breeding
program.
They also have a long history of participating in religious engineering, seeding myths and
prophecies across the universe in order to facilitate the arrival and acceptance by the
masses of their super being.
While disciples of the Orange Catholic Bible are widespread in the known universe, there
does not exist a single united Orange Catholic Church.
Instead, the different religious groups that follow the teachings of the OC Bible coexist
and generally work together under the banner of Orange Catholic Ecumenism.
Orange Catholicism centers around the accords of logic, reason, and Galactophasic determinism.
While the Padishah Emperor serves to defend the principles found within the OC Bible,
the ruling class itself, including other powerful organizations such as the spacing guild, are
generally agnostic.
The ruling class typically views religion as a kind of puppet show to distract and amuse
the masses, a political tool to keep the people docile in order to maintain a level of peace
and order.
Subsequently, the organizations and political powers within the imperium tend to believe
in mechanical explanations for all sorts of phenomena.
The Emperor’s Sardaukar who envision themselves as elite and superior beings are widely believed
to follow a way of Warrior-mysticism with Zensunni, as well as possibly Judeo and Islamic
influences.
Similarly to the Sardaukar, the religion of the Fremen people of Arrakis is based primarily
on the beliefs of the Wandering Zensunni.
While they had abandoned much of the pacifism inherent in Zensunni teachings, they had worked
to preserve the Book of Kreos and still referred to the sayings of Zensunni Philosophers.
The core of the Fremen religion revolves around survival, fighting skills and maintaining
strength.
They believe in the land of the ruh-spirit, the alam al-mithal, a mystical world where
all physical limitations including those of time and space are removed and where the minds
of some dead people dwell.
The Fremen also believe in holy fathers of their mythology referred to as the Qadis as-Salaf
as well as other fremen legends and heavenly figures.
The Fremen have also implemented several folk-beliefs into their religion, further differing their
views from those of traditional Zensunnism.
For instance, they hold a reverence for the mighty Sandworms of their planet, Shai-Hulud,
who they believe to be the physical embodiment of the One God that created and governs the
universe..
These sandworms could also be viewed as Shaitan, a powerful embodiment of evil, such as the
devil or a demon.
They also believe in the Demiurge, a person who stands next to God.
A major part of the Fremen’s religious tradition is the spice orgy.
This occurs as the culmination of the Water of Life ritual in which one of their newly
appointed Reverend Mothers has completed the conversion of the liquid exhalation of a small
sandworm from its poisonous state into a powerful narcotic.
This event serves as a release for the people and often triggers some of their latent prescient
abilities.
Much of Fremen theology was handed down in the Kitab Al-Ibar, a survival handbook combined
with a religious manual that their people had developed.
According to it, ritual is required to begin with words that when translated read “thus
go the holy words...."
Many of the Fremen’s customs are the result of the religious engineering efforts set forth
in ancient times by the black arm of the Bene Gesserit known as the Missionaria Protectiva.
Their influence is perhaps most evident in the Fremen’s reliance on the Sayyidina as
their Reverend Mother and spiritual leader.
Through the Missionaria Protectiva, the belief in a prophet, known as Mahdi, the Lisan al
Gaib, had been seeded and strengthened.
Frank Herbert’s Dune saga sees the evolution of the religion of the Fremen as it becomes
the Church of Muad’Dib and the Golden Elixir of Life-religion.
Soon after the Fremen rise up under the leadership of Paul Atreides on Arrakis, they set forth
across the universe unleashing a violent jihad in Paul’s name in which they attempt to
spread their beliefs and force conversion upon the masses, resulting in the deaths of
billions.
The Fremen’s religion then dominates the universe until the time in which Leto Atreides
II replaces it with the cult of the God emperor.
During Leto’s reign several smaller cults and religious groups rise up and after his
death, a few of these remain including the Fish Speakers, the "church of the Divided
God" with the Rakian Priesthood as well as variants of the Cults of Sheeana and Alia.
Most of the major religions in the Duniverse with roots in ancient history were fundamentally
changed with the development and expansion of space travel.
As mankind spread across the stars their theology would morph from focusing on divine activity
in favor of a wider interstellar view.
For example, the teaching of God's will for mankind in Genesis was then reinterpreted
to “Increase and multiply, and fill the universe , and subdue it, and rule over all
manner of strange beasts and living creatures in the infinite airs, on the infinite earths
and beneath them."
While the landscape of humanity continues to undergo tremendous changes throughout the
Dune saga, religion continues to play a big role in the outworking of events.
While Frank Herbert appropriated several ideologies, terms and customs from various religions he
did so in a way that was careful not to portray any such theologies in a negative light.
Instead, the author’s work provides a fascinating commentary on the human condition and serves
as a warning against the weaponization of religion by authorities to maintain control
over the masses.
As the Bene Gesserit had taught for centuries before the start of Dune, "When religion and
politics ride the same cart, when that cart is driven by a living holy man, nothing can
stand in their path."
But I’m curious to know what you think about the religious aspect of Dune.
Is there a particular religion or religious theme that you find particularly interesting?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Thank you all so much for your support and as always, have a very nerdy day.