Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral

No. 01 October 2026 BuffooneryBede’s Spiral Samhain a ring,a spookyplaylist, a recipe, a resource, anessayand a smallspell

bede’s buffoonery spiral / samhain

a ring Vampire’s Kiss Vampires Kiss is my new pain stim ring, made with faceted Czech crystal glass beads and sterling’ silver links that I form by hand. This ring rolls up and down the finger with some resistance and some fluidity and gives a little bite when needed. I have found it helps redirect my skin picking. Available in a range of colors. The beads sit between small loops of hand-shaped silver, like a little crown for your fingers; the open links let the light through to illuminate the glass. See Vampire’s Kiss ↗ bede.club 03

music / thin veil season spooky spook, black cat, funeral home, little vampire girl. a playlist to enjoy this thin veil season, with friends or foe both animal, devil, and/or non corporeal. Listen on Apple Music ↗ Listen on YouTube ↗ Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 05

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oatmeal Batch cookbreakfast for the next two weeks. A delicious and nutritious safe food without having to plan and cook breakfast every day. oats, blueberries, carrots, ginger, cardamom. a breakfast gift to future me :) recipe (about 14 one-cup portions): 4 cups rolled oats 4 cups whole milk 4 cups unsweetened almond milk 4 sliced bananas 4 cups frozen blueberries 2 apples, cored 3-4 carrots about 1/2 lb fresh ginger, then peeled 1/2 cup ground flaxseed 1/2 cup chia seeds ground ginger, generous cardamom and pumpkin pie spice Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 06

oatmeal / about 14 one-cup portions Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 07

food-processor shortcut: double the apples, carrots and fresh ginger (4 apples, 6-8 carrots, about 1 lb ginger). use half the mixture now and freeze half for the next batch. add everything except toppings to the slow cooker. i use Low on the 8- hour setting, usually stop earlier, and stir a few times. portion and freeze, keeping a few portions in the fridge. You can also make this in a pot on the stove, just needs low heat for a while until it seems done. reheat one bowl, then add walnuts, hemp seeds, optional rose water and fresh strawberries. those toppings go into the bowl, not the batch.

something useful to take with you people asked about the page i take to medical appointments, so i made a blank version you can download. there's a printable PDF and an editable Word version. To help you stay organized and grounded and advocate for yourself in medical appointments. Get the free Visit Summary ↗ Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 08

no purchase or email signup Visit Summary Printable PDF ↗ Editable Word version ↗ Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 09

an essay and a small spell Curses! A small spell for lifting an inherited curse Persian manuscript of magic and astrology, 1921. Princeton University Library, via The Public Domain Review ↗ Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 10

curses! / diva dompé I have been doing Internal Family Systems work with my therapist, and lately we have been focusing on complex PTSD. This process has me working through intergenerational trauma, something I am sure many other neurodivergent folks can relate to. I can see ways trauma has travelled through my family, along with patterns of behavior and, sometimes, similar tragedies. Autism also runs in families, and many autistic adults have only been recognized recently. I sometimes wonder how many people in previous generations were neurodivergent without ever having language for it, and what kinds of protection, damage and misunderstanding accumulated around them. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 11

People have found many ways of continuing a relationship with their dead. My family lineage is Italian and British. In parts of Italy, families left food or an empty place at the table for returning souls. In England, people made soul cakes around All Souls’ Day. Visitors, children or poorer neighbors received the cakes in exchange for prayers for the household’s dead. In both cases, food passed between the living and the dead. In these traditions, the ancestors were still part of the household. They could be remembered, fed, prayed for and given some rest. I keep thinking about the parallel. The dead remain present through stories, objects and ritual. Family patterns remain present through bodies, habits and beliefs. Both can haunt a house long after their beginning has been forgotten. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 12

I love thinking about the range of technologies humans invent for living. IFS is a psychological technology, but art, ritual, folklore and mythology are technologies too. They help us give form to things we can feel but cannot always explain. My All Souls’ Day ancestor altar. Photograph: Diva. I wonder whether the family curse was an early way of talking about and processing intergenerational trauma. Trauma can pass through families in many observable ways, including caregiving, learned behavior, secrecy, poverty and chronic stress. The science of trauma-related epigenetic inheritance in humans is still unsettled. But the idea that a family can inherit an unfinished story is very old. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 13

One of the oldest surviving versions appears in Aeschylus’s Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek plays about the cursed House of Atreus. Generation after generation repeats a cycle of betrayal, murder and revenge. By the final play, Orestes is being pursued by the Furies, ancient beings whose job is to punish crimes within families. What interests me is that the story does not end with the Furies being killed or banished. Athena hears their anger and offers them a permanent place of honor in Athens. They accept a new role and become the Eumenides, the Kindly Ones. Scholars disagree about whether this ending represents true transformation, political compromise or the subordination of an older power. Still, I am struck by its basic shape: the terrifying thing is given hospitality, and its purpose changes. Bouguereau / Orestes Pursued by the Furies, Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 1862. 14

This feels surprisingly close to IFS. When a frightening or destructive part appears, you do not drive it out. You approach it without judgment and become curious about the work it has been doing. Often it began as protection. It may still be living in an earlier emergency, performing a job that is no longer needed. It may not even belong to you in the first place. Python / Eumenides scene, 4th century BCE. Some rituals follow a similar shape. You make a place at the table. You offer water, bread, light or attention. You acknowledge the thing that has been haunting the family. The ritual gives the body and imagination a way to encounter an inheritance and change the relationship. 15

While researching actual curse-breaking and household rituals, I found some specific elements from regions in my family lineage. A folklore record from Gambasca (in Italian), in the province of Cuneo, describes boiling clothes believed to carry a maleficio and carrying a little bag of salt for protection. The same source describes striking heated stable chains against the ground to expose the masca believed to be responsible. Sound also appears in Ovid’s description of the Roman Lemuria, a household rite for troubling dead. After washing his hands and casting black beans behind him without looking back, the householder struck bronze and asked the ancestral shades to leave. The Cuneese chains and Roman bronze belong to different times and rituals, but both use sound to change the space and mark a boundary. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 16

curses! / diva dompé Ritual can also become frightening or compulsive, and I don’t see it as a substitute for therapy, material change or safety. But used with some grounding and flexibility, it can give physical form to an internal process. Alongside my therapy work, I have decided to experiment with curse-lifting rituals, working on the same inheritance in two parallel realms. Bede comes from an Old English word connected to both bead and prayer. It feels right that this ritual leaves you with a small object to wear, carry or hold. A ghost from Spectropia / optical illusions, p. 31. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 17

curses! / a contemporary ritual A small spell for lifting an inherited curse This is a contemporary ritual, not a historical spell passed down intact. The food and empty place draw from Italian customs of leaving food for the dead and English souling, in which cakes were given in exchange for prayers for the departed. The fabric and salt echo counter-charms recorded in Piedmont, but the wrapping, unwinding, washing and charm are my own additions. The closing sound nods to Ovid’s description of the Roman Lemuria and to the striking of chains in Piedmontese counter-magic. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 18

a small spell / materials You will need: a small piece of bread or cake, or any ancestral food. I make toad in the hole sometimes! a cup of water a bowl of water, with a little salt if your materials can safely tolerate it a piece of fabric, ribbon or thread that belongs to you a small object you can keep, such as a stone, bead or charm scissors a candle, if fire feels safe and pleasant a bell, if you want one, or anything else that makes a sound. This can also be you. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 19

a small spell / unwinding At dusk, set the food and cup of water at an empty place. Light the candle, if you are using one. Wrap the fabric or ribbon around the stone, bead or charm. It does not need to look beautiful or form any particular number of knots. Let it become tangled. Place the wrapped object into the bowl of water. If the object should not get wet, hold it above the bowl instead and let the fabric fall into the water as you unwind it. Slowly unwind the fabric. Feel its drag against your fingers and the weight of the object underneath it. If you reach a knot, cut through it. The ritual is not a test of your ability to untangle things. Let the loose fabric fall into the bowl. Wash the object in the water, or wipe it with a damp cloth, until it is bare. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 20

a small spell / words Hold it and say: “May the dead be fed and at rest. May the past return to its proper place. May what is mine return to me. This curse is lifted.” Leave the food and water at the empty place for as long as feels right. If you lit a candle, stay with it and extinguish it before leaving the room. It does not need to burn down. When you are ready to close the ritual, thank the dead for their place at the table. Ring a bell or make one chosen sound. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 21

a small spell / closing If the food is still safe, eat it or share it. They have been served first. If you want the offering to remain separate, compost what can be composted and discard the rest. Pour the cup of plain water into the earth or down the drain. Pour salt water down the drain with some fresh water rather than onto plants. The fabric can be dried and kept, discarded, or composted if it is an untreated natural fibre. Keep the washed object. Carry it in a pocket, wear it or place it somewhere you will touch it. Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 22

no. 01 / samhain / october 2026 sources & credits English Heritage / soul cakes ↗ Aeschylus / Eumenides ↗ Gambasca / anti-masche remedies (in Italian) ↗ Ovid / Fasti, Book V ↗ The Public Domain Review / Persian manuscript, 1921 ↗ Persian manuscript illustration: Princeton University Library, via The Public Domain Review. Art via Wikimedia Commons, public domain: souling, St. Nicholas (1882); Bouguereau, Orestes Pursued by the Furies (1862); Python, Eumenides scene (4th century BCE); Spectropia, p. 31, engraving by John Filmer. Resized and print-treated. Ancestor altar photograph: Diva. Paper textures: Indieground Design. Collage artwork: Diva’s curated public-domain library / source notes ↗ Diva / Bede Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral 23

Bede’s Buffoonery Spiral No. 01 / Samhain / October 2026 bede.club ↗