PAUL THE MOON AND CHANI THE SUN

visual symbolism that harkens back to ancient mythologies, and other iconography relating to masculine and feminine divinity and power

1. HISTORY OF SUN AND MOON MYTHOLOGY
Male-oriented views of divinity have only existed for about 5000 years, whereas female deities have been worshipped since at least 7000 BCE. However based on Upper Paleolithic archeological finds, it can be traced back as far as 30,000 BCE.

However during the Bronze and Iron ages, violent massacres and territorial conquests of land by Indo-European peoples, caused the beginning of influences and changes of divine female depiction in religions now considered pagan.

This is clearly seen in the shift from the Sun being an embodiment of femininity, to Sun related goddesses redefined with the Moon, and/or their roles diminished.

An example of this is the Egyptian goddess Isis being worshipped as the Sun, particularly at her temple in Philae, hymns for her saying “You are the one who rises and dispels darkness...” and “One who [...] fills the earth with gold-dust.”

After Greek rule following the conquest of Alexander the Great, her association shifted to lunar instead of solar, as were their female deities. Similarly, while Isis was associated to the Sun; Osiris, Khon, Thoth and I’ah were the Egyptian deities most associated with the Moon.

Frank Herbert himself has talked about researching Middle Eastern/Arab, Central Asian, Kalahari, and Native American histories while working on the book. These cultures all have ties to Sun and Moon worship.

Specifically a Sun Goddess and Moon God. More examples include Sun Goddess Shams from the Himyarite Kingdom who was the spouse of the Moon God Athtar. This great article goes deep and analyzes even more of the history of solar goddesses around the world. https://medium.com/@Mullerornis/solar-goddesses-419181511859

This ancient association to feminine and androgynous divinity carries over into the Dune universe. You will often notice characters referring to the “Great Mother”, an honoured goddess part of the male-female-neuter trinity, accepted as the Supreme Being by most in the Imperium.

Later in the series, the Isis-Cult also reemerges. And later cults are founded worshiping female members of the Atriedes line such as Alia Atriedes.

2. PAUL AND CHANI SYMBOLIC ROLES
Now that we have gotten all that out of the way, let’s take a look at how this specifically lines up with Paul and Chani. And what visual symbolisms and associations we will be seeing emphasized in the new film.

Right out of the gate for the trailer, we see shots of Chani in Paul’s dreams. She is bathed in sunlight, it embodies her. The parallels between Chani, the Sun, and female divinity are very clear here.

With Paul, he comes from a water planet, and the Moon controls the tides. Then while on Arrakis, Paul has a spiritual moment in connection to the planet’s Moons, and we’ll see him gain his name Muad’Dib from one of them.

Another cool visual, is the cast line up from the Dune teaser. It is similar to the design of the moon phases, and Paul is in the middle, representing the Full Moon.

Furthermore, the Moon and Sun duality is often connected to the concept of Yin and Yang. However while Yin is female and Yang male, this is not an absolute truth. Yin and Yang are relative concepts that ebb and flow depending on context.

So at certain times Chani embodies Yang, while Paul embodies Yin. A specific examples of this, is a line from their love scene in the book, where Paul calls Chani the strong one.

There are many other examples, but to avoid major spoilers I won’t share them here.

Something I want to address, before moving onto the next section, is Paul’s connection to the song Eclipse by Pink Floyd. There are reasons Jodorowsky connected Dune to their album Dark Side of the Moon, and a reason why the new movie used Eclipse, and the logo features one.

In the context of the song, Paul IS the dark side of the Moon. One of the multiple meanings behind the Eclipse symbolism, is the effect Paul is gonna have on Arrakis, the darkness that is inside that he brings with him.

So like Yin and Yang, where they are one with in each other and at a balance when connected, so are Chani and Paul. As becomes evident, Chani is the centre of Paul’s humanity.

3. ONE OF MANY ECLIPSE SYMBOLISMS
When the film comes out, or if you have read the book, those who are familiar with with Eclipse mythology will understand the many meanings behind using this in the logo.

But while reading up on those, I found an interesting association between the Eclipse and Paul and Chani’s relationship. This might be a stretch, but with context of the story, there is definitely something interesting here.

In many cultural myths, such as Australian Aborigines, African and Tahitian, people viewed the Eclipse to be the Sun and Moon coming together in love. And in some, specifically in the act of making love.

This gets more interesting when you look at how often the Sun was associated with motherhood. The giver of life, without her there would be no life. And avoiding much spoilers for those who don’t, we all know how important motherhood was to Chani.

Furthermore, the Moon is associated with the female reproductive cycle, and in cultures such as Western Mongolia, the Greenlanders, Maori and Nigerians, it was believed the Moon could impregnate a women.

Another coincidence, is that some people even associated Isis’s impregnation as an eclipse between her and Osiris.

So while Paul’s coming to Arrakis is at a time of eclipse, so is Chani and Paul’s meeting.

5. VISUALS IN DENIS’ FILM
In conclusion, I believe we will see many forms of visual storytelling, as is a definitive part of Denis’ style of filmmaking.

But more specifically I believe we will see the parallels of Paul being the Moon and Chani the Sun, be played up through visual cues. We already see the significant association between Chani and the sun. And some already of Paul and the moon.

To end this thread, I now ask all of you, to share your thoughts on this, and any other visual symbolisms you have noticed. I would love to hear them all