Wolfgang Laib „Pollen from Pines”, pyłek sosny, medytacyjna instalacja, 1983-86. Pinakoteka Współczesna (Pinakothek der Moderne). Monachium 2016

Brian Eno Prophecy Theme (OST „Diune” /  David Lynch)

 

„The elements of any mythology must grow from something profoundly moving, something which threatens to overwhelm any consciousness which tries to confront the primal mystery. Yet, after the primal confrontation, the roots of this threat must appear as familiar and necessary as your own flesh.

For this, I give you the sandworms of Dune.

(…) In the lair of this mystery, you learn to walk in a different way. You assume a new awareness. Still, this terrifying presence supports your life. The sandworms are the ultimate source of Dune’s wealth (their bodies give up the melange – spice which extends lifespans) and they also produce most of Dune’s oxygen (created in the monstrous chemical dissipation of heat which is produced by the friction of their passage).

(…) Another matter stated with equal clarity is that women remain the keepers of the dark mysteries and that men invade such matters at their own peril. Thus, the sandworms of Dune and the trials of the male protagonists.

The death of a sandworm contributes the substance which arms consciousness for the transcendence of time. This is true whether it occurs in the sanctuary of a sietch cavern or by the natural processes of the open desert.

To use such a substance, you pay the great price. You no longer live in the protective and gregarious midst of your own kind. Now, you are the shaman, alone and forced to master your own madness. You have grasped the tail of the ultimate tiger.

(…) Every such acquisition requires its new consciousness. And a new consciousness assumes that you will confront dangerous unknowns – you will go into the deeps.

It’s an old, old story. Every terra incognita has its own rules which you must learn if you wish to survive. When you remain on familiar turf, you know where to walk; you recognize the dangerous creatures which share your world. The poisonous snakes have been identified and there are antitoxins. In some respects, this is pure myth, but your mythology does incorporate lessons of survival.

If you enter new terrain, however, you are the pioneer, the explorer and you are expendable. That is your function when you go into the deeps.

It’s no wonder that our ancestors both admired and feared the ones who dared the perils of inner exploration – whether that exploration was ignited by peyote or amanita muscaria or by trials of pain and self-induced trance. And it’s no wonder that such fears remain with us today. Our mythology is not all that different from the bushman’s”.

Frank Herbert Sandworms of Dune (1978, audio)