from: Wyrmwood
A recent Samhain gathering that I went to, had as part of the main ritual, a grounding with this world before stepping over the threshold and conversing with the beloved dead. The grounding involved each person in the circle taking turns in going around to each person in the circle with a lit candle and saying what they liked about that person (could be as simple or as complex as you wished). When each person had completed the circle, they then lit the next person-to-go-around 's candle. In this way, each person in the circle had a dozen positive things said to them about what other people notice in them. For many, it was a bit of an eye opener, and many found out that they were higher valued by many people in that circle that they had realised ! The problem, is of course, lack of communication (and the fact that the people in the circle don't see each other very often and so don't have that interaction.) It was great for those that had self-worth problems or those that were suffering major grief from loss of a loved one. It was a reason to stay in this world.
Another variation on this idea might be to say to each person one thing that you like and one thing that you don't like (although trying to be constructive in their criticism..) A difficult thing to face (and of course you could just ignore the negative things said to you), but also might be useful in understanding how others perceive you and maybe open your eyes to how you are interacting with other people.
....anyway, coming home from the ritual, I had a great discussion with my fabulous other half, and amongst other things, decided that many rituals were based on particular aspects or truths that they wanted to convey across to people (and the best way to do it was in a ritual space, where the teaching was set up to promote a 'realisation' - which is the best form of understanding something). However, the focus of many present-day rituals was being lost as people were focusing on the ritual (traditional or otherwise) rather than the energy/ideas that they wanted to put across and using the ritual as the tool. To our minds, this was like putting the cart before the horse.
more on this to come...