This reflection is too old to include with my current dedicant path work, but it is an example I would like to work from going forward.
This ritual took place at 2pm Central Time during Fantasy Faire in the Willowton Cuthbert region of Second Life with just over 100 avatars in attendance. This was a non-ADF ritual designed and led by Julala Fairelander specifically for players of the educational game Herb and Fable but also open to other Fantasy Faire participants.
The rite was well-structured with a song, then the ritual, then a final song followed by dancing to a general playlist. Since Fantasy Faire is an event to raise funds for the American Cancer Society Relay for life, Julala asked the participants to hang colored ribbons on a hawthorn tree. This is intended to be a representation of illness being left behind or a petition to our personal patrons to help friends and family with cancer. The words of the ritual discussed the history of walking or driving livestock between the two fires as a form of purification. Julala animated our avatars to symbolically wash our faces with Beltane morning dew. She also discussed Beltane as a time of growing life as the opposite to Samhain, looking through hagstones to see truth, and we each received a hagstone to keep.
During this ritual, I felt a strong connection to the others present despite us only being there as avatars on a screen. Additionally, I felt the presence of some sort of deities or spirits but don’t know them well enough yet to identify any specifically. As someone who is unemployed at the time of this rite and doesn’t know what the future holds, I feel cloudy when it comes to what truth and the future look like. Finally, we did not walk between the fires as part of the ritual, but I felt compelled to at the end.
Page last updated September 2026.