I don't remember when exactly I started doing this, but I try to heave salt.
I seem to remember that I started by watching YouTube on feng shui or fortune telling.
A pair on the left and right inside the front door, and one in the northeast, which is said to be the "demon's gate".
It is said that there are various meanings and effects to the salt placed here.
Because of its effectiveness in attracting customers, especially in the customer-oriented business, it is often placed at the entrance of ryotei (Japanese-style restaurants) and kappo (Japanese-style cooking restaurants), following a Chinese legend. It is regrettable, however, that such stores are becoming rare these days.
In Shinto, salt taken from seawater is indispensable for purification.
Seawater nurtures life, and salt is indispensable to the body. Therefore, salt is believed to have spiritual power.
There is a story on the Internet that says that Izanagi no Mikoto did misogi in the sea when he escaped from the land of Hades.
Although the Kojiki describes the place where misogi was performed, it is not clear whether it was the sea or not. I think it was a place where there was a clear stream.
Regardless, the custom of purifying salt seems to have existed since ancient times, and heaping salt is a continuation of this custom.
The reason for placing heaping salt at the entrance is to purify the house so that no bad luck will enter from outside. The northeast demon gate is also a pathway for a hundred demons, so by placing heaping salt there, one is trying to keep them out.
If you call it superstition, that's all there is to it, but if it makes you feel better, it's not meaningless.
It has become a custom to change the salt twice a month, once at the beginning of the month and once in the middle of the month.
It is nice to feel refreshed when I bow two hands and two beats to a new piece of heaping salt.
