Do we have a new standard for the Mythos lovers to judge next to all previous Lovecraft adaptations? Well, It seems so. Fresh of the fame of Mandy, The Cage man himself went on to capture the role of Nathan Gardner. But today I'm here to talk with the 'Occult/Witchcraft supervisor' of Color Out Of Space, Amanda Mariamne Radcliffe.
Mad Dashiell- I’m here with long-time friend as well as Occult, Ritual and Witchcraft Advisor Color Out of Space Amanda Mariamme Radcliffe who worked on Color Out Of Space. Hello, how are you doing?
Amanda Mariamne Radcliffe “Hi Dashiell, I am doing well thank you.
MD- "As I already mentioned, Amanda is a good friend and she blew my mind when she let me know she just so happened to have been working on the Color Out of Space for the past year or so. The one film I was most excited to see. You sound like you are having a fantastic time lately, good to hear it. It's so good to have you here”
AR- "Thank you."
MD- "So let's dive right in and talk about how you were introduced to the project?"
AR- "OK. I first met Richard a few years ago while working for an Esoteric web TV channel based in Paris called Baglis TV. Part of my job was to find English speaking interview subjects who could speak about Estoericism; and my good friend, Arch Druid Thomas Clough Daffern, suggested that I contact Richard, whom he had met several years before at a Druidic ceremony at Stonehenge. By this time I had already been Ordained as a Bishop into the French Gnostic Church, which took place in 2016, and I was working as a Gnostic Sophia Espiscopa, and following my interests in Fin de Siecle French Occultism, the 12th Century French Heresy known as Catharism, and the 18th-century Gnostic revival. Having been psychic and a mystic since the cradle, I had been brought to France via a series of dreams and visions, which started ten years earlier - the full meaning of which I have only just discovered, and which will be the theme of my next book. In 2016, I had an experience at the Church of Notre Dame in Orcival, where I saw, while fully awake and alert, an apparition of a White Lady. I explain this encounter in more detail in my book - but suffice to say, while I have had a number of extreme unexplainable experiences in my life, this one was unlike anything I had witnessed before, and it was extremely difficult to process emotionally and psychologically. When I first made contact with Richard about being interviewed for Baglis TV, I knew nothing about his work, and was not a fan. What drew me to him was his story about meeting the White Lady of Montsegur ten years ago, and how that changed his life."---
AR-"I was relieved to have met someone who could comprehend something about what I had seen - and when he told me that there had been numerous sightings of White Ladies here in this part of France, since time immemorial, I knew I would have to go to Montsegur to meet him. Our first meeting was like something out of a film. As soon as I saw him, I felt as if I had known him before, Multiple lifetimes flashed before me, and when we hugged, I entered into an extended altered state of consciousness which lasted for several hours. Driving up to Montsegur in the dark, we talked incessantly - and again, everything he told me, it was as if I already knew. And when I went into his house for the first time, I knew where everything was, as if I had been there a million times. Sometimes things in life just feel right, flow, and fall into place, and this meeting was one of them. There is no explanation, other than the influence and confluence of spiritual, nonconscious events. And thankfully, we were both crazy enough, and informed enough, to make our decisions based on them. I was also guided by the fact that my clairvoyant friend, Susan Leybourne, had told me three years earlier, that I would move to Montsegur with a man named Richard, where we would recreate a Gnostic Church and rediscover the lost initiation rites of the Cathars - where I would become the Priestess I am, and the Guardian of the Black Stone - ‘the deity who came to earth in the form of a meteorite.’ When Richard placed the black bleeding stones into my hands on my first visit, I cried; because I remembered her prediction, and realized, it was coming true."
MD-"Most magic in films seems to be unresearched or fall flat, can you tell us more about what you brought to the set of Color Out Of Space?"
AR-"By 2018, I was working with Richard on the script for Malware, and by October of the same year, we began in earnest on the rewrites of Colour out of Space. I was so energetically affected by the initial script he had written five years earlier, that I could not read it all the way through; and could only help with rewrites by reading each scene non-consecutively. I realized from the beginning that we were dealing with profound powers, and felt from the very start that Lovecraft was not ‘making this up’ - but was in fact in touch with some very real entities and energies - the likes of which, have consequences for human beings, when we interact with them - just as the Color has consequences for the Gardner family. Certainly, these beings which Lovecraft was the conduit for, may or may not have been the cause of his final undoing. I was also concerned about the real magic in the Necronomicon, much of which is similar to Theurgic medieval rituals and practices."---
AR-"I was never a Lovecraft fan, so I came to the project with no preconceptions, reading everything purely clairvoyantly - and I think that was a blessing, rather than a bane, as it meant I was able to approach the material, and the magic, and Lovecraft himself, in a nonbiased way. Also, for reasons I won’t go into here, the producers realized that genuine magical protection would be needed quite early on when they could no longer deny the supernatural experiences that were unfolding. So Richard and I were able to have free reign."
MD-"I can see how that made a huge difference. Can you tell us more about the effect that the creative process of the film had on you?."
AR- "There were many mystical and magical influences which made their presence known throughout this process. The Color spoke to me in visions and dreams, and through seances with my friend Susan Leybourne - and it made it known to us that it did not want to be portrayed as evil at all - but as beautiful - because it was not evil - but rather, Evolution Out of Place. This is why we have Lavinia and Nathan repeat that phrase. In a strange way, they are the characters who come out ‘best’ from the effect of the Color. Their relationship is healed when Nathan dies in Lavinias arms - and Lavinia, despite having a chance to be rescued by Ward, becomes the true Gnostic heroine when she chooses voluntarily to merge with the Color; and in so doing, is transfigured and absorbed… and she sees the face of God."---
AR-"As a die-hard mystic, this is the arc I contributed the most to in the movie and is the one of which I am the most proud. When she chooses to merge voluntarily with the COLOR she becomes a female Christ; when she enters the room after cutting herself, she becomes a Saint and Martyr - and when she takes her dying father into her arms, she becomes La Pieta. These were the most important aspects I wished to transmit, esoterically speaking, and from people’s responses, these subliminal psychic messages have been fully received and transmitted - which is the best I could have hoped for."
MD- I have seen posters, and even her hand poses reminds people of the images you have captured of yourself prior."
AR- "That was deliberate. I coached Maddie physically to hold the right poses for the rituals."
MD-"Did any interesting spirits present themselves during the filming of the rituals? Or anything more of that nature?"
AR- "Yes"
MD-"Do tell?"
AR-"There have been many, too many to share here, but they will be mentioned in my forthcoming book. However, you have seen the opening ritual scene. I rewrote quite a bit of this, which initially was a more generic Wiccan ritual. Before the ritual, I noticed that the art department had set up the circle of stones incorrectly, so they had to be altered. I set the energy correctly and spent some time with Maddie in prayer and invocation, as I wanted to be sure that she was protected and felt confident in what we were about to do. We rehearsed the ritual and were all set to go, but the producer decided that he wanted more takes, and with each repetition of the ritual, I could feel the energy building, and I saw the horse becoming more and more agitated."
AR-"The producer then said that he wanted Richard to shoot a whole take of the ritual, and the conversation with Ward, and then Lavinia mounting Comet and riding off. Richard was not happy about this idea but felt he had no choice as time was short. The ritual was repeated one last time; but as Lavinia/Maddie mounted the horse, her foot missed the stirrup - and we all gasped in horror, as the horse bucked and tried to throw her, then ran towards an overhanging tree branch, which if she had hit, may have killed her…"
AR-"Being an ex-gymnast, she threw herself from the horse before that could happen, and was not hurt. But it was very clear to me that the spirits of the land were not happy with us. Especially so, when a few moments later, I was talking with her, and a huge branch broke from a tree beside us, and almost crashed into both of us. It was then that I realized I had to go off into the woods on my own and make amends."
MD-"Did you make an offering?"
AR-"I did, yes, which calmed it all down. But the same day, Katie Byron, who was working closely with our Art Director, Sergio Costa, got very sick. She was going to provide her finger and actual blood to use for the opening ritual."
MD-"Woah..."
AR-"As initially, we were going to use real blood as Lavinia's sacrifice for her mother's health, as well as the hair she burns. But she was protected from this by a sudden sickness that left her sweating in her car and with vivid hallucinations. Kate is the descendent of Lord Byron, who once upon a time, was living in Sintra…When she told me later what she had seen in her visions, it confirmed my earlier intuition that I would have to Ordain her into my Gnostic church. When I Initiate or Consecrate someone - which I have only done a handful of times - I look for three signs. First, I receive their Spiritual name; second, I or they receive a vision or a dream; and the third is private. I had already received her name, so when she told me the vision she had while sick, I knew I had to Consecrate her; which I did on the last day of the shoot, at the private Chapel which just so happened to be there on the set. This it is just one of the things that happened."
MD-"Tells us a bit about working with Nicolas Cage, if ya can?"
AR-"Nick was very charming and a consummate professional. He is also open to esoteric and spiritual forces and ideas, and we spent some time talking about that. When I asked him to tell me how he felt about the death scene I'd written for him, where Lavinia becomes La Pieta, and how he imagined his character would feel when he is dying in Lavinia’s arms, he said, 'Bliss'... I realized then that my intentions for my part in this movie had hit home."
MD-"That’s great, So what’s next for you Amanda?"
AR-"Well, I’m working on an esoteric autobiography and mystical travelogue which details my experiences here in the South of France, and which includes the metaphysical aspects of making COLOR OUT OF SPACE; teaching Gnostic studies, Ordaining Priests and Priestesses, and holding esoteric pilgrimages here in the heart of France. The feedback from the Film has been incredible, and it has been especially heartening to see how viewers are responding to the spiritual and magical essences we tried to infuse it with. I feel it will really be the beginning of many good things for all of those who have been involved with it. What comes next, is in the lap of the Gods… or in my case, the Goddess…."
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(Image by Richard Stanley)
The Mystery School is online, and accepting applications for novitiates. She only takes 5 students a year- You can connect with Amanda Mariamme Radcliffe on her FB page here- https://www.facebook.com/amanda.mariamne
Thanks again for joining us, this has been a real treat for me as well as you readers I'm sure. Color Out Of Space is in select theaters now so get out and see it while you can on the big screen, thanks again for joining us at AICN this is Mad Dashiell signing off.
