Harae, also read harai, is the basic ritual act of Shinto: purification, the washing away of kegare so that a person or place recovers the brightness and cleanness that contact with the kami requires. It comes in many forms. The most elemental is misogi, immersion or ablution in water, standing under a waterfall, wading into the sea or a river, or simply rinsing hands and mouth at the stone trough set by every shrine gate.
In shrine ritual a priest performs oharae by waving the haraigushi, a wand of white paper streamers, over the worshippers, and salt may be scattered to the same end. Because pollution is a condition rather than a sin, the logic here is cleansing, not absolution: the aim is to restore purity, not to pardon guilt. Purification comes first in almost everything Shinto does, before prayer, before a festival, before a new building is raised on cleared ground, and the tradition traces the whole practice to Izanagi, who purified himself by washing after escaping the defilement of the dead.