There was once a thread asking if "Touhou is Satanic" and I think a lot of people got it wrong, thinking that it was some Christian warning, but I will try to make it clear: This is thread that mixes the esoteric Touhou threads, speculations about canon's symbols and meanings, and also conspiracy and less grounded speculation; even of topics outside the franchise's canon, such as ZUN, Japan (to some extent), and even the typical "Gensokyo is real" question.

I will start with some points and the reason I am talking about them:

ZUN is a freemason - This is based on certain usages of symbolism in Touhou, such as the recent eye of providence (TH20), the strange success of his franchise, and the fact that a lot of manga and important content creators have ties to these kinds of organizations.

The SDM are Luciferians - This is based on a couple of manga panels were Remilia wishes for Reimu's ritual, which is used to keep Venus, the planet associated with Lucifer, away, which she wishes to fail. And looks quite excited about the idea. Another instance is "Evening Star - Night Falls (Yakumo Yukari's 2th theme)" which is a clear reference to Lucifer, but with less backing up because at least, in Remilia's case, she is a vampire, and also called the Scarlet Devil.

The Lunar Capital is real - There are external sources, very different to Touhou of course, that the Lunarians may be real. How they are actually differs a lot, but it is a topic that has been talked about in Japanese mythology and media, which backs it up.

Canon related questions that are often overlooked - Some points are: Alice trying to do a murder ritual and who was it directed to. The actual purpose of Gensokyo. And if the Japanese government (of that universe) knows about its existence.

PD: The Venus thing happens around these panels.

>>49796992 (OP)
Do you have some sources on manga artists and other Japanese creatives being freemasons? Is Freemasonry really even a thing in Japan?

>>49796992 (OP)
Patchouli, while she may not explicitly be a Luciferian herself, likely knows a lot about Satanic magic given how she has an entity like Koakuma as a minion. Early magicians tended to lean Christian with their beliefs and traditions but someone as thirsty for esoteric knowledge as Patchouli surely kept an open mind and took whatever she could from as many traditions as she could. I speculated in another thread a while back that she might have either been Spanish or at least studied in Toledo and/or Salamanca, both places rumored to have some of the oldest schools dedicated to the occult hidden away in the caverns beneath them. The one in Toledo is even rumored to have been founded by Hercules, along with the town itself.

>typical "Gensokyo is real" question.
Back in January I had a dream involving the departure of a ship called ‘The Black Moon’ to Gensokyo, possibly with me on it. This correlates to an astronomical event on August 22nd or 23rd depending on ones time zone. I keep finding strange things about that date. It’s also the exact night when Leo transitions to Virgo, which I know not the significance of. According to the Aztec Calendar it is a day of the hunt, a good day to stalk your prey, a bad day to be stalked; it also takes place during the trecana of power struggle. Dolls in Psuedo-Paradise takes place in August.

Could I really get spirited away that night? How should I prepare? Given some of the ominous readings, I think I need to prepare for a fight to the death against supernatural beings.

>>49797417
If you know you know

>>49797417
Perhaps Yukari will lure you into a railcar to the other side.

It's cute that these schizophrenics think they'll be allowed into Gensokyo without LNNing every Windows game.

>>49796992 (OP)
It definitely feels like the kami and spirits are “possessing” ZUN somehow so he tells their stories

>>49797078
Wow.

Well, yes. You see, and I am not ecen making this up. Freemasons "took over" Japan after WW2. You can find their centers and lodges easily through Google Search or even by xasuallt walking in Tokyo. If that is nor enough, this is easily recognizable because a lot of them use similar allegories and symbolism, like for exampke the trends in anime in Japan being all about high school shit, little girls being 400 year old, etc. And even if that does not count, they use a lot of Occult symbology, both in games and manga. Of course, not every mangaka/anime creator is a freemason, but it would be weird that a big creator like ZUN was not part of that shit. Even more with the references to Venus, or weird symbology.

>>49799221
No one that visits Esoteric touhou threads wants to enter to Gensokyo. In fact, ever since I got info about the lore I prayed for it to not exist. Because back around years ago I genuinely thought that Gensokyo existed, but then I saw what Toouhou was inspired in, the insconsistencies in the franchise and I thought that the only way it could exist if is Touhou was some sort of Talisman.

This aligns with my theory that Touhou may be some sort of spirit vessel that get stronger when people masturbate, fall in love with them and even with fan arts. Which would explain well why there is so much pornography.

>>49800549
ZUN already had his "I got surprised by the depth of history of these characters and some troublesome ones started to move on their own" thing from the postscript of Symposium of Post-Mysticism. But it's nice fro him to make it extra clear.
>>49800594
What do 400 year old little girls have to do with Freemasonry? The high school thing is a mix of target audience for such media being highschoolers and the fact that highschool tends to be kind of peak of individual expression in Japan for most. Occult symbolism is tricky because it can be something or the equivalent of 16 yo metal kids scrawling pentagrams. Of course they carry an energy signature, but not all people understand what they are really about or for. I'm gonna need a bit more than that to convince me that ZUN is a freemason.
>>49800606
Gensokyo is a spirit world that is a manifestation what would in Western terms be called Neptunian and Venusian energies. Of course me and lesbians are going to fall in love with and goon silly style to something like that. Gensokyo's nature is beatifully reflected in it being a doujin franchise, it's an imaginative, beautiful work of art (full of women) that is also "dissolved", open, free for all to use within the limits of certain terms.

It's the Neptunian half of it which is of great interest. I mean, Venusian things are very nice and pleasant, but Neptunian energies are extremely powerful. They can be delusional, narcotic and dissolving, but these energies are like a cosmic ocean that saturates all of reality. It's no coincidence that Tibetan Buddhists have an "oceanic lama" as their leader, despite being a landlocked country. It's no wonder some call certain types of mystical experiences "oceanic states". It's not wonder the classic metaphor is "the schizophrenic drowns in the waters where the mystic swims".

And if you can swim without sinking, it's profoundly purifying and healing. It's in an ocean where Izanami conducted the first misogi after becoming perturbed by the death of Izanagi. The fact that this gave birth to the ocean kami tells us it was not an ocean of water. It's the holotrophic reality which Kasulis' wrote about, where a single thing reflects the whole, like a fractal unfolding. Returning to that cosmic ocean purifies and heals, restores us back to wholeness and leads us back home. It's this reason why so many feel nostalgic and homesick for Gensokyo even if they come from a non-Japanese culture.

These energies might even be the latent consciousness of the universe itself. It might be Kobo Daishi Kukai's sixth element, mind, which pervades all of reality. In the Dainichi Nyorai Sutra, it's said that the every metaphorical pore of Dainichi Nyorai, the consciouss universe, is "full of countless oceans". And just as the individuated mind can manifest basicaly anything in it's immaterial aspects, so can the cosmic mind too.

Gensokyo most likely exists only in wholly immaterial sense, but it is real. It's just something far wider, stranger and weirder than most can even imagine. There are times and places where you can better interface with it, but if your heart screams loud enough for it, it will hear you and find you. What happens from there on out is entirely up to you. Some become completely raptured by it's Venusian beaty, some become moved to become musicians and artists, and some can see and feel that there is more to it than just beauty and escapism.

This sort of cum vampire thinking (maybe the whole "gapped" and eaten by youkai thing) is just a manifestation of anxiety over misaligned sexual energies. Every straight man lusts after women and simultaneously fears losing their indepence to their bewitchery, fears losing control of themselves and their libido. I can't say the fear is entirely unjustified, but living like that will twist and warp you and make you unable to interface with certain energies and facets of reality. There are higher and lower, healthier and sicker forms of love and lust. Energies can be purified and transmuted.

There is a reason why (You)r dick responds so strongly to modern day equivalents of nymphs and muses and dakinis and apsaras and goddesses. Explore that reason to it's very root without fear or anxiety.

>>49797417
Oh yeah, also the latest hifuu album had Maribel nearly be taken away to another world.
>>49800606
>the insconsistencies in the franchise
Mythology has all kinds of inconsistencies, yet for some strange reason the gods still answer. I’ve witnessed it myself. In a story I’ve told before, on July 6th of last year, I called upon Xolotl and a few minutes later was greeted by a pair of explosions. An explosion was witnessed by many that night, but bizarrely it was only one and its time was later than mine. This story doesn’t make sense, but I know it’s real. I heard another strange, really loud explosion last Saturday too.

>>49800594
>they use a lot of Occult symbology, both in games and manga
I always just chalked that up to Japan being fascinated by the west. What's more fascinating than the occult, after all?

>>49800986
It's true. Few years ago I called upon Tachobél and later that day there was a violent explosion in the toilet bowl. The explosion was witnessed by many on that fateful day.

The 2hus are real, they're decent, kind people, most of them, anyway, and they want everyone who truly loves Gensokyo with all their heart to be able to go there sometime

Of course, everyone has a dark side and a light side, so don't beg them to take you there, that'll just annoy them and you might ruin your chances of going there

I started reading a book which I would say is pretty obligatory reading for everyone interested in this subject. It's The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan by Carmen Blacker.

It's very easy to read and engaging and seems to have a lot of information that is very relevant to Touhou. So far these include:
- Reimu means a divine reveleation in a dream. It was thought that kami most commonly appear to human in dreams, and a reimu is a dream where a kami appears.
- Noh theater, besides frequently having explicitly spiritual and magical themes, has features that suggest it is an evolution of shamanic practices.
- The Okina noh character is considered a kind of generic form of a kami or ancestor spirit. The titular Okina play is thought to bring good luck when performed.
- Certain flowers are thought to act as yorishiro for the souls of the dead. Remember how in PoFV errant human souls caused the flowers to bloom?
- Kuda gitsune are a Nagano speciality (of course)
- There is a "heretical" wish-fullfilling Buddhist ritual that is known as Iizuna hou, or Iizuna rite that involves kitsune spirits. It seems to have evolved from Dakini rituals, as dakinis and kitsune became conflated at some point.

I'm only 50 pages in and while some of this stuff isn't new to me, it's filling some gaps and it's presented in a way that's interesting and easy to digest.

I also found it interesting how the author compares Japanese mythology to a mycelium network of symbols, and how many myths kind of point to singular entities or ideas behind them, even if there are lots of local variations in the mythology surrounding them.

bump

>>49796992 (OP)
I already refuted this in that thread and it had not been addressed. What engagement do you expect from repeating same talking points like a shill?

>>49800549
>It definitely feels like the kami and spirits are “possessing” ZUN somehow so he tells their stories
WAAAOOOOOOW!!! TOUHUZ CONFIRMED REal. HOT DAYUM............wwwAAOOOOW... guys what I ching hexagram represents this feel, esoterically speaking!?

>>49812108
I asked your question to an online I Ching, and this is what it had to say:

>12 - Twelve

>P'i / Stagnation

>Heaven and Earth move away from each other.
>In the ensuing void, the small invade where the great have departed.
>There is no common meeting ground, so the Superior Person must fall back on his inner worth and decline the rewards offered by the inferior invaders.

>Difficult trials as you hold to your course.

>Changing Lines:

>An Old Yin for Line 2
>An Old Yang for Line 6
>The Old Yin prevails.

By the way, this hexagram is "heaven" over "earth", which is exactly where both concepts need to be

Is there an english translation to whispered oracle yet? I'm kinda itching to divine dumb stuff with coins in a bowl with my favorite ladies

>>49813216
here
https://mangadex.org/title/2447d41e-8edf-4d3c-a686-1dfd077b8d55/whispered-oracle-of-hakurei-shrine

>>49796992 (OP)
>that the Lunarians may be real
Learn of western alchemists, you'll end up kicking in your teeth from the whiplash and greater implications.

Been thinking about the Dragon God recently, and I noticed a parallel to a mythological being from an entirely different culture

The Dragon God is associated with weather, water, rainbows (or colour at least), and created Gensokyo and perhaps the entire world

If it had visited a culture that wasn't familiar with dragons, but very familiar with snakes, they would assume it was a snake, a huge, rainbow snake

Australia is full of snakes, and in Aboriginal mythology, the world is said to have been created by an enormous rainbow serpent, associated with weather, water and creation

This isn't unique to Australia, many cultures around the world share similar myths

Rainbows and dragons just seem to be a universal theme in human culture, Christians, too, believe in dragons (or they used to) and believe rainbows are a sacred message from God

Maybe it's just "big snakes are cool and rainbows are pretty", but I think there's more too it than that

Does anyone have a list of the previous threads?

>>49816289
https://mittelalter.digital/artikel/5576/drachen-im-mittelalter

>>49813216
The fortune slips themselves are fully translated on the wiki article for the book. See anon's mangadex link for the manga bundled with it.

>>49801920
>>49799221
Yeah, I guess the countless eye witnesses and security cameras must have been a coincidence. I’m just a pathetic schizophrenic in denial. https://hillsboroherald.com/hillsboros-big-boom-remains-a-mystery/

>>49822862

There's a chance I might get spirited away to Gensokyo in two weeks. Started with a dream and there's a lot of weird synchronicities. What should I do? I've had a weird thought of turning it into a feast and preparing cakes and stuff. We could even turn it into a /jp/ meetup but that'd turn out pretty awkward if nothing happened, and there's the usual risks of meeting with people online.

>>49833850
>There's a chance I might get spirited away to Gensokyo in two weeks.
And >>49753839 was created about 17 days ago

Pretty funny coincidence, huh?

>>49812947
Thanks. lol.

>>49816289
Rainbows look like huge oily snakes after all.

I would very much like to double down on my recommendation of The Catalpa Bow. It's excelent stuff and puts a lot of context into many aspects of Japanese culture and mythology.

Some stuff off the top of my head:
- Ascetic practices and cold exposure repeatedly play a big role in Japanese shamanic practices. Training for itako, blind seer women, included up to 33 333 buckets of cold water poured on them over the course of their training.
- A kind of cultivation or activation of "inner fire" seems to be a prerequisitive for shamanic success, and the fasting and cold exposure seem to be a way to force this out. Some aspects of this veer close to Indian ideas about kundalini.
- Some Buddhist temples were built in places that were thought to be or at least represent locations in afterlife, and many have a bridge over an artificial dry riverbed. That's the children's hell also featured in Wily Beast.
- Many people ending in shamanic roles had a history of sickness and neurosis that became resolved once they went through some kind of initiation.
- People took their reimu (dreams featuring deities) extremely seriously, and people who didn't heed the call became ill or started to go insane. Following the call resolved these issues.Some of the descriptions of the dreams are uncannily close to some of my own, including the type of voice the deities speak with and how they choose to appear.
- Some kind of wreath or halo of flames is not only associated with the luminous kings of Buddhism, but also with gongen, these manifestations of enlightened beings appearing as local, often very wrathful beings. Recall the fire surrounding a lot of later depictions of kami in Touhou.
- Tengu were at times seen as enemies of not only Buddhism, but also protective deities, because often the protective deities manifested as snakes. Birds and snakes were seen as kind of enemies. Maybe the Moriya-Tengu feud has a deeper mythopoetic meaning to it.
- Tenguphiles rejoice: some of the boys they would abduct and drive insane would return with shamanic gifts.
- The author met a mountain ascetic woman who had tengu-like traits, a "birdlike" face, glinting eyes and ability to move very fast in difficult terrain. Very odd anecdote, the only of it's kind so far in an otherwise very academic text.
>>49816289
Snakes and dragons are extremely common elements in many mythologies. Their roles tend to be very diverse though. I've been still reading The Catalpa Bow, and even in that book, even in the context of shamanic practices of a single culture, snakes keep cropping up. Sometimes in very positive light - they are associated with fertility, act as spirit guides and protect. But there is also a more troublesome side to them too, even wrathful. They are associated with things that snakes aren't really associated with in real life, such as fire. The author herself notes that some elements surrounding these fiery snakes veers close to Indian ideas about kundalini. Perhaps fragments of it got transmitted to Japan via Buddhist influence, perhaps it's convergence.

I think there is 100% more to it. I think the way they shed their skin and are "reborn" is a big part of it, but there is something beyond it. It's something extremely primordial, likely pre-human.

Rainbows are fascinating because they reveal something that is normally hidden, the spectrum of colors hiding inside undivided sunlight. There's a lot of stuff in certain forms of Buddhism about rainbow lights and rainbow bodies and how inside everything that seems substantial is just this rainbow hued light. It's strangely modern - everything really is energy at different frequences, and visible light is just a vsible manifestation of this.

When it comes to native Japanese myths, I believe the Floating Bridge of Heavens that the heavenly kami is often thought to be a rainbow. I believe the gods of Norse mythology also used a kind of rainbow bridge too?
>>49816319
They are archived here.
https://archive-of-the-sealed-gods.neocities.org/site-functions/acknowledgements

>>49841816
>- A kind of cultivation or activation of "inner fire" seems to be a prerequisitive for shamanic success, and the fasting and cold exposure seem to be a way to force this out. Some aspects of this veer close to Indian ideas about kundalini
>- People took their reimu (dreams featuring deities) extremely seriously, and people who didn't heed the call became ill or started to go insane. Following the call resolved these issues
Haha, classic.
Picking this up. Thanks.

>>49841968
Yeah, the author herself notes that there is notable similarities between features of Japanese shamans and shamans elsewhere, including the arc of the "shamanic sickness" and it's resolution.

Another thing I forgot to add, is that besides those who have "shamanic sickness" there are also people who kind of get pushed into a corner by life and who then undergo the initiation. These include people who have alcoholism or have gambled away their fortune.

It's an old book, still valid, but some kind of updated version with perhaps even more comparative angle in light of what is known of the phenomenon these days could be nice.

Attached is the author's encounter with the tengu-like woman at the mountains. While not explicitly supernatural, it is very strange. The glint in her eyes reminds me of how Taoists say that people with a lot of shen, spiritual power, have different eyes from regular humans.