a lifting hoist not illustrated the operation of the lifting shackle can be appreciated from a comparison of fig2 and 3 in fig2 the shackle is about to be lowered into receiving engagement with a pair of anchors embedded within the concrete structure during this lowering process the vertical walls 32 36 of the shackle body pass between the anchors 40 42 ultimately the ends of the anchors complimentally nest within the sockets 48 and the outer surfaces of the anchors complimentally engage the divergent walls 34 38 of the shackle body the later condition is shown in fig3 once the shackle body is fully engaged over the anchors the locking bolt 64 is moved annularly within the body and extended through the throughbore 35 of the section 33 and the apertures 58 of the anchors as shown in fig3 this serves to both secure the shackle to the anchors and to maintain the outer surface of the shackle in complimental engagement with the inner surface of the arcuate recess 44 fig4 shows a void former 72 for positioning the anchors 40 42 within a concrete structure as the structure is being formed and creating an arcuate recess within the surface of the structure the void former 72 is fabricated from a relatively strong resilient material such as rubber or polymer the lower surface 74 of the void former is of arcuate configuration corresponding to that of the recess 44 to be formed within the concrete structure the upper surface 76 is generally flat and may have a recess formed therein for the attachment of placement hardware grooves 78 extend the cross and open through the lower surface 74.