"Dune," By Frank Herbert...

Duke Leto Atreides of House Atreides, ruler of the ocean world Caladan, is assigned by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to serve as fief ruler of the planet Arrakis. Although Arrakis is a harsh and inhospitable desert planet, it is of enormous importance because it is the only planetary source of melange, or the "spice", a unique and incredibly valuable substance that extends human youth, vitality and lifespan. It is also through the consumption of spice that Spacing Guild Navigators are able to effect safe interstellar travel through a limited ability to see into the future. The Emperor is jealous of the Duke's rising popularity in the Landsraad, the council of Great Houses, and sees House Atreides as a potential rival and threat. He conspires with House Harkonnen, the former stewards of Arrakis and the longstanding enemies of the Atreides, to destroy Leto and his family after their arrival. Leto is aware his assignment is a trap of some kind, but is compelled to obey the Emperor's orders anyway. Leto's concubine Lady Jessica is an acolyte of the Bene Gesserit, an exclusively female group that pursues mysterious political aims and wields seemingly superhuman physical and mental abilities, such as the ability to control their bodies down to the cellular level, and also decide the sex of their children. Though Jessica was instructed by the Bene Gesserit to bear a daughter as part of their breeding program, out of love for Leto she bore him a son, Paul. From a young age, Paul is trained in warfare by Leto's aides, the elite soldiers Duncan Idaho and Gurney Halleck. Thufir Hawat, the Duke's Mentat (human computers, able to store vast amounts of data and perform advanced calculations on demand), has instructed Paul in the ways of political intrigue. Jessica has also trained her son in Bene Gesserit disciplines. Paul's prophetic dreams interest Jessica's superior, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam. She subjects Paul to a deadly test. She holds a poisoned needle, the gom jabbar, to his neck, ready to strike should he withdraw his hand from a box which creates extreme pain by nerve induction but causes no physical damage. This is to test Paul's ability to endure the pain and override his animal instincts, proving that he is, in Bene Gesserit eyes, human. Paul passes, enduring greater pain than any woman has ever been subjected to in the test. Paul and his parents travel with their household to occupy Arrakeen, the capital on Arrakis. Leto learns of the dangers involved in harvesting the spice, which is protected by giant sandworms, and seeks to negotiate with the planet's indigenous Fremen people, seeing them as a valuable ally rather than foes. Soon after the Atreides' arrival, Harkonnen forces attack, joined by the Emperor's ferocious Sardaukar troops in disguise. Leto is betrayed by his personal physician, the Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, who delivers a drugged Leto to the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and his twisted Mentat, Piter De Vries. Yueh, who delivered Leto under duress, arranges for Jessica and Paul to escape into the desert. Duncan is killed helping them flee, and they are subsequently presumed dead in a sandstorm by the Harkonnens. Yueh replaces one of Leto's teeth with a poison gas capsule, hoping Leto can kill Baron Harkonnen during their encounter. Piter kills Yueh, and the Baron narrowly avoids the gas (due to his defensive shield), which kills Leto, Piter, and the others in the room. The Baron seduces Thufir Hawat to become his replacement mentat by promising him "the most efficient spices" and denigrating Leto as "one whose reason was clouded by emotion," while secretly dosing him with an unremovable fatal poison, providing a daily antidote via his food, as security. Having fled into the desert, Paul is exposed to high concentrations of spice and has visions through which he realizes he has significant powers (as a result of the Bene Gesserit breeding scheme). He foresees potential futures in which he lives among the Fremen before leading them on a holy war across the known universe. Paul reveals that Jessica's father is Baron Harkonnen, a secret kept from her by the Bene Gesserit. Paul and Jessica traverse the desert in search of Fremen people. After being captured by a Fremen band, Paul and Jessica agree to teach the Fremen the Bene Gesserit fighting technique known to the Fremen as the "weirding way" and are accepted into the community of Sietch Tabr. Paul proves his manhood by killing a Fremen man named Jamis in a ritualistic crysknife fight and chooses the Fremen name Muad'Dib, while Jessica opts to undergo a ritual to become a Reverend Mother by drinking and neutralizing the poisonous Water of Life. Pregnant with Leto's daughter, she inadvertently causes her unborn daughter Alia to become infused with the same powers in the womb. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, who bears him a son he names Leto. Two years pass, and Paul's powerful prescience manifests, which confirms to the Fremen that he is their prophesied "Lisan al-Gaib" messiah, a legend planted by the Bene Gesserit's Missionaria Protectiva. Paul embraces his father's belief that the Fremen could be a powerful fighting force to take back Arrakis, but also sees that if he does not control them, their jihad could consume the entire universe. Word of the new Fremen leader reaches both the Baron and the Emperor as spice production falls due to their increasingly destructive raids. The Baron encourages his brutish nephew Glossu "Beast" Rabban to rule with an iron fist, hoping the contrast with his shrewder nephew Feyd-Rautha will make the latter popular among the people of Arrakis when he eventually replaces Rabban. The Emperor, suspecting the Baron of trying to create troops more powerful than the Sardaukar to seize power, sends spies to Arrakis. Thufir uses the opportunity to sow seeds of doubt in the Baron about the Emperor's true plans, putting further strain on their alliance. Gurney, who survived the Harkonnen coup and became a smuggler, reunites with Paul and Jessica after a Fremen raid on his harvester. Believing Jessica to be a traitor, Gurney threatens to kill her but is stopped by Paul. Paul did not foresee Gurney's attack and concludes he must increase his prescience by drinking the Water of Life, which is fatal to males. Paul falls into unconsciousness for three weeks after drinking the poison, but when he wakes, he has clairvoyance across time and space: he is the Kwisatz Haderach, the ultimate goal of the Bene Gesserit breeding program. Paul senses the Emperor and the Baron are amassing fleets around Arrakis to quell the Fremen rebellion, and prepares the Fremen for a major offensive. The Emperor arrives with the Baron on Arrakis. The Sardaukar seize a Fremen outpost, killing many, including young Leto, while Alia is captured and taken to the Emperor. Under cover of an electric storm, which shorts out the Sardaukar's defensive shields, Paul and the Fremen, riding giant sandworms, destroy the capital's natural rock fortifications with atomics and attack, while Alia assassinates the Baron and escapes. The Fremen quickly defeat both the Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops, killing Rabban in the process. Thufir is ordered to assassinate Paul, who gives him the opportunity to take anything that Thufir wishes of him. Thufir chooses to stab himself with the poisoned needle intended for Paul. Paul faces the Emperor, threatening to destroy spice production forever unless Shaddam abdicates the throne. Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a knife fight, during which he cheats and tries to kill Paul with a poison spur in his belt. Paul gains the upper hand and kills him. The Emperor reluctantly cedes the throne to Paul and promises his daughter Princess Irulan's hand in marriage. Paul takes control of the Empire, but realizes that he cannot stop the Fremen jihad, as their belief in him is too powerful to restrain. --- Wikpedia.

Birds Of Winter...

Swans are symbols of Imbolc because of their association with Brigid, the Celtic goddess of poetry, healing, and smithcraft, in Celtic mythology. --- From "The Male Witch".

"Isn't It Ironic???"...

You meet the man of your dreams, --- and his beautiful wife...

How To Grow Snowdrops...

How To Make A Brighid's Cross...

THAT Groundhog!!!...

"He was taking too long to decide whether he saw his shadow or not,--- so, I ate him."

Happy Brighids's Day!!!...

Sheherazade & The 1001 Nights...

A Sample Of "Kismet In Ahahahamen"...

Chapter 1. “I say, ‘It’s a bull,’ and he responds, ‘Milk it.” --- Arabian proverb. ******************** Just outside of Dubai, 1923… “You broody camel’s turd, Jaspar! Idi Bey, our illustrious chieftain, may he live for one hundred years, --- Allah willing, and praised be His most holy name, has said he does not want any more harem girls! Even though our glorious Sheikh Karim Ali Muhammad Fadil Jamael al-Melek always enjoys a new and rare delight!” “I never heard our most honored Idi Bey say he no longer wants to gift our sheikh with new girls, Uncle!” “That is because you do not listen carefully! You are not a subtle man! But, now, you and I have the extra chore of keeping this girl fresh and choice! As if we did not have enough problems with all the things piled on our packs and in our cart!” “But, she is so exquisite, Iman! And, she was just sitting there in Yasmin’s cafe! I could not resist when Yasmin’s little son came running to me to tell me about her, to pull me away from Shumaila’s place!” “You like Shumaila’s shop way, way too much!” “Yes, true… I like going there because of Shumaila! She always gives me delicacies of her food, so generously!” “Ha, that’s not the only thing she is generous with!” “Of course, of course, but Shumaila is such a Balochistan beauty, is she not? So, it is to be expected!... Ah, those eyes like black velvet night, her hair like cherry amber, her creamy-skinned bosom more lush and fragrant than all the perfumed oils of Arabia!” Iman rolled his eyes at this lovesick description of the pretty plump Shumaila. Jaspar sighed as if his heart had swelled to twice it’s size with lust. “I could live in Shumaila’s beautiful eyes and I would be continually intoxicated with the joy of it!” “Yes, yes, yes, I am surprised you have not asked that hennaed flower to marry you.” “I did, --- oh, I did, Iman, but she would not have me! Shumaila told me that she wants to remain free, unhampered by any man, especially not a husband, but I have not given up hope. A woman so gorgeous and so reliant on her beauty will one day realize that even beauty as abundant as her’s will not last forever and she will come to know that I have loved her for years and that I will cherish her always... You do think she is worth waiting for, do you not?” “Yes, yes, yes, of course, naturally I do! Shumaila is a most luscious Baluchi woman! I agree! I agree! And, I suppose I will forgive you for capturing the golden hair!” “The golden hair’s limpid eyes are like the heart of a sapphire, or like the still pools of a Persian garden, her skin like flawless pearl, that delicate round face blushing like a little rose and her tiny feet with the bright pink toenails, so sweet and adorable, so enticing! I wanted to bite her toes! Yes, I could not resist taking her and it was very easy, Iman! Why are these visitors to our great lands so foolishly trusting? They’ll drink anything served them, at anytime, anywhere! Then, they collapse like a three-day old bread pudding, and we can just scoop them up, an easy prize for a sultan or a sheikh or a lucrative delight to sell in the slave markets! Yes, yes, yes, you are right! You are so right! By the stinking breath of a gnarled jinn, tourists are the most careless, cloddish idiots! But, now, now we truly must get moving! I want to be as far away from here as possible by tomorrow’s dawn! Make sure the golden hair is well-drugged and well-covered and that her bonds and gag are secure, so she is completely silent.” “Yes, yes, Iman, my honored uncle, yes, yes, yes!” Jaspar and Iman urged their camels stealthily forward. --- Copyright 2026 by Sorelle Sucere. >>> Camels are silly!!!... ...And, --- "Midnight at The Oasis"!!!...

>>> What is the Rub' al Khali (pronounced --- "Rube all Holl You") ???... The movie "Dune" was shot in the Arabian desert...

Do you remember when the Sanderson sisters said they "wanted children" in "Hocus Pocus"???!!!...