Mwari is the creator and is approached through intermediaries rather than directly, and the layering of those intermediaries is the structure of Shona religion.
Nearest to the living are the vadzimu, the ancestral spirits of the family, concerned with the conduct and wellbeing of their descendants and addressed within the household and the lineage. Above them are the mhondoro, the lion spirits, which are the spirits of former chiefs and rulers and whose concern is territorial rather than familial: rain, land, fertility and the legitimacy of authority over a defined area.
That territorial dimension gives the tradition a political weight that household ancestor veneration alone would not carry, and it has had real historical consequence, since mhondoro mediums have spoken to questions of land and rule at moments when those questions were being decided by force.
The medium, the svikiro, is the person through whom a spirit speaks. The office is not chosen; it is recognised, tested by those qualified to test it, and held under conditions.
At the highest level, the Matonjeni shrines in the Matobo hills are associated with Mwari and are attended by their own custodians, and their authority extends well beyond any single lineage.
Shona traditional religion is living and is listed by this atlas as restricted. The shrines are under the authority of the people who keep them.