INFORMAL
SHRINE
SOCIETY ⛩


A creative association for the promotion, propagation, and perpetuation of informal shrines and related activities.


Founded 2026.
Gatherings: Every Waning Crescent Moon
Petitions for membership: By formal and informal request only

An informal shrine is any small, unofficial, deliberate arrangement by which someone marks a place as mattering. Stones stacked at a trailhead. Ribbons knotted to a fence at a bad bend in the road. A fox shrine on the hill above a town, repainted by whoever last took the time to. A photograph taped inside a locker door. A coin pressed into the bark of one particular tree. Shrines are a universal product of the human condition and they are everywhere.

We promote informal shrines, by which we mean bring them attention and encourage others to appreciate them as we do.

We propagate them, by which we mean making more when and where it's appropriate to do so.

And we perpetuate them, by which we mean keeping the ones that already exist standing a while longer.

We also engage in related activities, which members are encouraged to interpret to its fullest extent.

A shrine implies the walk out to it, the thing carried there, the story that explains it to a stranger, the map by which it is found again, the argument over whether it counts, and the long meal afterward at which the argument continues. No member has yet proposed an activity the Society was obliged to rule unrelated.

The Society is for people who already do this and have not had a name for it. There is no credential and nothing to have studied. If you have ever turned back to set something upright, you are most of the way in.

As an informal society formalized in dedication to informal shrines we recognize the need to employ caution in formal exclusion of formalized shrines so therefore we prefer to maintain an informal position on the boundaries between formal and informal entities including our own.

Which is to say although we are dedicated to the promotion, propagation, and perpetuation of informal shrines, related activities may include such efforts be directed to formal shrines in addition to any other higher order related activities.

Stone figures in red bibs and caps standing in wet grass in the rain, a moss-tiled village roof behind them.

Offerings & Intentions


Every member applies with two things. An intention, which is their own business and which the Society does not inquire about. And an offering, which is the Society's business entirely: some capacity you are willing to put at the disposal of the other members.

The offering need not be anything you would call a practice, and it need not be the thing you are best at. The seven categories are:

  • SITE: finding, watching, walking, mapping...
  • BUILD: stacking, carving, joining, weatherproofing...
  • OFFER: leaving, lighting, pouring, feeding...
  • TEND: sweeping, righting, clearing, repairing...
  • RECORD: photographing, drawing, measuring, rubbing...
  • TELL: naming, writing, printing, translating...
  • GATHER: hosting, cooking, convening, corresponding...

Anything that will not fit into one of the seven is almost certainly a related activity, and the Society would like to hear about it.

A hillside Inari shrine above a town, red banner and stone lanterns.
Small stone figures among leaves and moss in raking sunlight.
A market table crowded with old cameras, crucifixes and glass siphons.
A cairn of flat stones strung with red rags, a wooden gate on the ridge behind.
A tattoo shop stairwell: neon cat sign, painted mural, pride flag on the rail.
An antler lashed to a rope fence, hung with bells, beads and cloth.
Stone figures in red bibs standing in wet grass in the rain.

Join


Membership is by petition. Tell us your intention and your offering. Both may be short. Neither needs to be impressive.

Petition Considerations
  • Your intention, and the offering you propose to make good on.
  • Evidence that you have already been doing some version of this.
  • A capacity for both solitude and company, in roughly equal measure.
  • Self-sufficiency, paired with a wish to be part of something larger.
  • A genuine interest in the promotion, propagation, and perpetuation of informal shrines and/or related activities.

→ PETITION HERE ←

↑ link still to be set

Two small stone figures with hands pressed together, half hidden in leaves and moss, sunlight flaring above them.
⛩︎ INFORMAL SHRINE SOCIETY