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[Nehet]

So...guess who is in charge of the Samhain ritual for my group this year?

Eeep! It's me! 

I've done group rituals before, but never a Samhain ritual, and I'm anxious.  It's an important day for me, and it's important for a lot of folks in my group as well. 

The group I work with has done some really powerful rituals.  We have also done some pretty mediocre ones.  Of course, I've facilitated my share of mediocre rituals, and I can look back on what I've learned and laugh.  I just really want this one to be special, and I think my high standards for myself are getting in the way of me even getting started with the planning.  The group I work with is very loosely Neowiccan.  There's a lot of room for me to do my own thing.  We take a lot of inspiration from Reclaiming, but we don't really label ourselves.

I'm resistant to the type of Samhain ritual I usually see.  Many of the rituals are focused on banishing negativity.  I've seen a lot of "throw your troubles in the cauldron and let them go" rituals.  To me, those types of rituals can be effective, but they aren't really "spiritual".  They're practical magic.  They serve their purpose, but they aren't central to my practice.   I want something with more depth than that, and I have a feeling that the rest of the folks in the group want something deeper as well. 

I'm not looking for anyone to tell me how to do this ritual, but I'm wondering about people's experiences with Samhain rituals in the past.  What were your best experiences?  What were your worst?  What makes a ritual work/not work for you?  I know not everyone here celebrates Samhain, but if you do, what does it mean to you? 

I'm hoping a discussion about this will help me with the brainstorming.

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