practicesBlessing at a shrine

Japan runs the outward direction at national scale and describes the mechanism in its own words. The practice says of omamori that they are made sacred through ritual and contain busshin — spiritual offshoots — in a Shinto context, or kesshin, manifestations, in a Buddhist one. An ofuda is considered imbued with the power of the kami or Buddhist figure revered at the place that issued it, containing that essence, in the practice's own phrase, by virtue of its consecration. Both are available at shrines and temples to anybody, regardless of religious affiliation. Fushimi Inari Taisha, which the cited account credits with as many as 32,000 branch shrines across Japan, is one address at which that happens.

The drawing counter is a third thing again. An omikuji is a paper fortune drawn at a shrine or temple. If the prediction is bad, custom is to fold the strip and tie it to a pine tree or a rack of metal wires on the grounds, alongside the other bad fortunes — the reported reason being a pun between matsu, pine, and matsu, to wait: the bad luck waits by the tree rather than following the bearer. If the fortune is good, the bearer can tie it up anyway so that it takes greater effect, or keep it. A prayer written on a wooden ema and tied to a scaffold works the same way.

Taiwan states a sequence. Issuing a ping'an fu, a peace-and-safety slip, involves the petitioner's name and birth date, incense, divination blocks and passing the slip in circles over the censer before it is handed over. This record names those steps because the source publishes them, and prints no wording.

In Catholic practice the Church has legislated the whole category. The Catechism sorts sacramentals into three kinds — blessings, consecrations and dedications, and exorcisms — and defines them as sacred signs bearing a resemblance to the sacraments, whose effects are obtained through the Church's intercession. The inward traffic is where its charm objects live: an ex-voto is placed in a church or chapel where the worshipper seeks grace or gives thanks, and is meant as a testimony to later visitors as much as to the figure invoked. Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille holds paintings, plaques, model ships, war medals and football shirts given by players and supporters of Olympique de Marseille. The Votive Chapel at Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal has hundreds of crutches, canes and braces fixed to iron grilles, left by pilgrims who said they were healed after meeting Brother André. A milagro is pinned to a saint's image as a reminder of what is needed or in thanks for an answer.

The scale of the inward traffic can be very large. Quiapo Church in Manila holds a novena every Friday, attended by thousands, at which devotees climb a narrow flight of stairs to kiss the foot of the Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno or wipe it with the handkerchiefs they bring every visit. At the Feast of Jesús Nazareno on 9 January 2024, 6.5 million devotees took part in the Traslación.

And the two directions can meet on one day. At Alasitas in La Paz, people acting as shaman bless the miniatures at the fair, and at midday on 24 January the Catholic Church blesses the same gifts at the main cathedral.

Inference — the thing that separates this from consecration proper is who the recipient is. A consecration is usually performed for a person, by a specialist who knows them, on an object that is already theirs. A shrine blessing is performed for anybody, in advance, on stock, in exchange for a donation. That is not a lesser rite; it is a different social arrangement, and it is the one that makes a counter possible.

Outward: the object is prepared, the rite is performed by the shrine or temple, the object is placed on a counter or in a case, and a visitor receives it for a donation. The Japanese wording is deliberate — omamori and ofuda are not bought but received, sazukaru or ukeru. Inward: the object is brought, sometimes made for the occasion, and left in a designated place — pinned to an image, hung on a grille, tied to a tree or a rack, fixed to a wall — where it stays as a record for the next visitor. In both directions the place, not the person, is what does the work, which is why people travel to it.

Live at every address in this record. Japanese shrines have extended the outward direction into categories that did not exist a generation ago — Kanda Myojin in Tokyo issues charms for IT equipment and electronics — and in 2022 Sega released free digital omamori. Quiapo's Traslación drew 6.5 million people in 2024, and the Archdiocese of Manila has proposed to the Holy See that 9 January be declared the national feast of the Jesús Nazareno. The inward traffic is the one that leaves walls and grilles full of objects, and those walls are the best-documented evidence in this atlas of what people actually ask for.