Welcome to the Archive of the Sealed Gods. The purpose of this project is to explore and document the esoteric in Touhou Project games and the associated media.
The worldbuilding of this well-beloved doujin media empire is full of refrences to real life mythology, religion, esoteric traditions, paranormal, occult and fringe science ideas.
These ideas strongly root the games and their associated print works in to the more numinous, magical and mysterious side of reality.
This no doubt greatly contributes to what people refer to when they say Touhou is "souled".
However, this project poses a bold statement based on 6+ years of research into paranormal and occult topics as well multiple individual's (including my own) experiences:
Touhou is "souled" in a literal sense
Touhou is greatly influenced by real-life mythologies and beliefs from three religions: Shinto, Buddhism and Taoism
Touhou is also influenced by some ideas from Western esoteric tradition and paranormal research
Inspiration rooted in real life spirituality gives Touhou exceptional spiritual potency that explains it's enduring popularity
The fierce adoration roused by it's spiritual potency has at least turned Touhou into an egregore
However, there are indications that there are spirits of non-human origin within Touhou
Gensokyo is at the very least heavily inspired by real-life locations in Nagano, Japan
The various entities within Touhou represent spirits tied to Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism and certain Western beliefs
Spirits have taken many different manifestations over time, and the way they are represented in Touhou is continuation of this
It is possible to reach out to these spirits and to contact them and multiple people have done so
The spirits of Gensokyo are capable of supernatural feats and can offer guidance
The most powerful of these spirits are genuine deities and are most worthy of reverence
It's possible to radically change your relationship with Touhou, yourself and the world at large by taking the spirits of Gensokyo as your mentors.
You are warmly welcome to never view Touhou the same way as you did before.
Please wait warmly...this site is incomplete
This site is meant to be an evolving, living text, a dialogue and not a monologue. However, I intend to eventually produce downloadable texts based on the contents of this site.
Please check this site from time to time if you become interested in the topic.
I am currently working on practical advice for contacting the spirits of Gensokyo among other things.
I also have several ideas for texts that do not quite fit the linear structure of this site, and will eventually put them in a subsection of their own.
The site will also be updated as new relevant information is found.
Please note that there are some texts dealing with mature topics related to the Touhou Project and spirituality here. Please leave if you are not an adult.
Recent updates
18.11.2024: Strange Cycle of Six Months update: Added personal experiences section, which I will properly insert into page structure at some point. I hope to gather other people's experiences with the spirits of Gensokyo into a separate subsection, so it's only fair that I am the first one to share my story so far. Today marks six months of consistent spiritual practice for me. I have also been informed that the Archive has "gone Reddit", which explains the recent surge in traffic. The site has exceeded 8000 views.
11.11.2024: Kaminazuki update: Updated Shinto section, added Living With Kami to external sources and detailed the lore behind Mt. Iizuna on Gensokyo Is A Place On Earth? The site has exceeded 7500 views!
31.10.2024: Halloween microupdate: Added a mention of the origins of the ritual that Alice Margatroid performs in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red. Added Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai to external sources.
27.10.2024: Pre-Halloween megaupdate: Added part 4: Starting the Practice Mod. Split History of the Archive into it's own section. This will probably be the last update of this size for the year.