We recently spoke to Rebecca Ferguson about her role as Lady Jessica in Dune: Part Two. In the interview, Ferguson mentioned an intriguing bit of Dune lore that audiences will get to see in Part Two: the Water of Life. What is the Water of Life, exactly? What role does it play in the Dune saga?
Warning: this article contains spoilers for the novel Dune, and potential spoilers for Dune: Part Two.
The Water of Life in Frank Herbert’s Dune
In the novel Dune, Jessica becomes a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit after she and Paul join the Fremen on Arrakis. However, the new title isn’t just a formality. Jessica has to undergo a potentially deadly ritual to unlock the Bene Gesserit’s ancestral memories before she can step into the role.
On Arrakis, Chani and the Reverend Mother Ramallo performs the ritual for Jessica, having her drink a strange liquid that smells like Spice. When she drinks it, Jessica’s realizes that it’s some kind of drug, and she feels her consciousness expand. Here’s how Herbert describes the ordeal:
Whirling silence settled around Jessica. Every fiber of her body accepted the fact that something profound had happened to it. She felt that she was a conscious mote, smaller than any subatomic particle, yet capable of motion and of sensing her surroundings. Like an abrupt revelation—the curtains whipped away—she realized she had become aware of a psychokinesthetic extension of herself. She was the mote, yet not the mote.
Although the ritual successfully allows Jessica to become a Reverend Mother, it has a startling side effect: it also transforms Jessica’s unborn fetus into the hyper-intelligent Alia, or St. Alia of the Knife. Alia is later born with the mind of a mature adult, and the power to project her consciousness into the minds of others.
There’s another unsettling aspect of the Water of Life: it’s actually the bile of a sandworm. In the novel, Jessica learns that the bile is harvested from sandworms by drowning them in water. After the bile has been ingested, a Bene Gesserit’s body acts as a catalyst, transforming it into a narcotic that others can safely take to expand their own consciousness.
The Water of Life in Dune: Part Two
What form will the Water of Life take in Dune: Part Two? Will it stay true to Frank Herbert’s original depiction, or will Denis Villeneuve take some liberties? We’ll have to wait and see—Dune: Part Two hits theaters on March 1.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
