Ok, I said I was going to do it and I did. So here's the entire beach day ritual, as clearly as I can identify all the elements. Some of these might just be incidental, but if I could think of a way to interpret something as part of or an enhancement of the rite, I included it.
COMMEMORATIVE HOLIDAY: In celebration of Oscar's first paycheck
JOURNEY: Setting out to the seashore
SETTING INTENTION: "I'll bet... that by tomorrow mornin', at least somethin'll be cleared up, and you'll have a nice job offer" and as has been implied, in future builds, P will be hirable as hotel staff. Unclear if Storm meant this as encouragement, or if he actually intended this to be an Intention Setting, but the effects of the rite do bring exactly this about.
TO LIMINAL SPACE: the seashore, which is about the most liminal space there is.
BATHING: in the sea.
PURIFICATION WITH SALT: because the bathing is done in the sea.
USING THE MATERIALS AT HAND: the seashells. Note the bought one is rejected. Which makes the money spent on it wasted, and therefore a-
SACRIFICE/ALMS: the money wasted on the conch shell when Storm immediately finds a better one.
SHARED MEAL: the dumplings and fish and chips. It's not bread and wine, but there's no other narrative reason to mention the food and Asterion's more than once made a big deal of the ritual aspect of eating together.
MAKING A FIRE
IN AN ABANDONED LOT: another layer of liminal space, and the same kind P used to make his charm.
AT DUSK
TRADING LIFE STORIES: P volunteers an account of how he can't stop seeing the hotel, the very thing he's been avoiding telling Storm, unprompted once the fire is going. Note providence and/or synchronicity carries the steps forward once the ritual has some momentum, and Storm doesn't have to do this step.
It's at this point Oscar explains what he's been doing. P doesn't catch on till he's told.
THE ACTUAL RITUAL: salt, fire, amulet, and a spiral to be broken. note the amulet used was both an heirloom-a bead from the charm P's grandfather made him-and purpose built-among other beads Storm added. Storm mentions this as another symbol of broken recursion. Also reflects, unknown to Storm, the armlet MC summons for Asterion to test the hotel's fabrication powers. Synchronicity again, but also dipping into another narrative's power. Storm is playing YOUR role of "releaser from the bondage of recursions"
PERFORMED ON BEHALF OF ANOTHER: explicitly in the text
TRADING LIFE STORIES: then Oscar responds with the story in whose recursion P is trapped.
GUESSING P'S TRUE NAME: and that one carries some REAL hefty folkloric weight.
INVOKING HIS ROLE WITHIN THE NARRATIVE TO CLAIM AND CONTROL IT: "I'm Io, and yer the Panoptes." which arguably has even more weight. Note the implicit queer implications in claiming a role meant for a different gender, which in some traditions is also an enhancement of ritual work.
So, it's maybe not surprising that this is what worked to break through P's debts and reveal the hotel. About the only things that could have been done which wasn't was if the ritual had also been at a crossroads, and the Marian invocation that this thread was supposed to be about. (I guess a future update could always reveal the beach is named Salve Regina or something like that.)
I guess one could say there's a 'true love' element that could have been included too... but I'm willing to bet that future updates will reveal that yeah, that's there, retroactively, if you as the player steer correctly once Storm and P arrive at the hotel.