Esoteric Shinto

What Is Kegare?

Kegare is accumulated heaviness, spiritual residue, and disruption that should be purified.

Kegare is often translated as impurity or pollution, but the word carries a deeper spiritual meaning. Kegare can be understood as accumulated heaviness, disruption, spiritual residue, and distortion that interferes with harmony.

Kegare does not mean a person is evil. It means something has gathered around them, within them, or in their field that should be purified.

People can experience kegare through grief, conflict, death, illness, spiritual confusion, unsafe ritual practice, exhausting environments, or contact with people and places that leave residue behind.

Shinto purification exists because life accumulates impurity. Misogi clears it. Prayer clears it. Sincerity clears it. Relationship with the kami restores order.

Read more: What Is Kegare? in the Learn library, or explore the related practice.