External sources

Archive of the Sealed Gods


Documenting the reality of the spirits of Gensokyo.
Finding spirituality in the most unlikely of places.

While it would be extremely tedious to compile all the sources I have used in the creation of this site (this might or might not happen), here are some resources that might be of further interest to you.

Touhou

Touhou Wiki - A good source for baseline Touhou information & lore.

Oriental Holy Land Wiki - Shrines in Hakuba.

Touhou Bibouroku - Oriental Memories - Information on Touhou, including records of pilgrimmages to lore-relevant sites the author did.

Information on background textures ZUN has used.

Awesome Touhou- Extensive list of various resources & sites related to Touhou.

Account of a Touhou pilgrimmage to Suwa Grand Shrine.

Touhou omikuji generator - Not sure if I should put this here or in the Shinto category, but you may draw your fortune nevertheless.

General Japanese Folklore, Philosophy & Religion

Gods of Japan, A to Z - Mark Schumacher's site is in general a treasure trove on all things related to religion in Japan, both Buddhism and Shinto.

Yokai.com - Online Database of Japanese folklore.

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai - Japanese ghost stories and folklore

Do haniwa dream of ceramic sheep - Well researched deep dives in to mythology behind Touhou. Also has information Chinese, Japanese and Mesopotamian art and religion.

“Yūgen” in the nature art of Touhou - Explores the concept of yūgen through Touhou fan art.

General study of religion

Religion for Breakfast - A good and accessible YouTube channel on topics related to various religions. His videos on Shinto and Taoism might be of particular interest to visitors to this site.

Let's Talk Religion - Another good and accessible YouTube channel on topics related to various religions, with a bit different focus.

Shinto

Encyclopedia of Shinto - Exactly what it says on the tin.

Mimusubi - a resource on Shrine Shinto in English. Personal blog of David Chart who works as an English translator for Jinja Honcho, which is the closest thing to a "central authority" that Shinto has.

Living With Kami - The blog of a Konko priestess of Canadian origin, information on Shinto and Shinto practice in English

Green Shinto - A blog with a bit different view on Shinto than the above. Comes with an extensive recommended reading list.

Kami no Michi - The Life And Thought Of A Shinto Priest - Shinto as seen by a priest of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine.

Buddhism

Tricycle - Buddhism for Beginners.

Sutta Central - A repository of key Buddhist texts.

Doug's Dharma - Accessible videos on Buddhist ideas for Western audience. Doug's a lay practitioner though, so some people might want to get their info from a source associated with a Buddhist organization instead.

American Buddhist Study Center - More academic videos on various forms of Buddhism.

Kalavinka Press - Essentials of Buddhist Meditation - A classic text of Mahayana Buddhist meditation for the low price of a donation.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Buddha - On Buddha as a philosopher.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Japanese Zen Buddhism - Monumental overview of Zen for the interested.

Foundation for Shingon Buddhism - A resource in English for those interested in Shingon Buddhism that is heavily referenced in lore of Touhou.

shingon.org - The charmingly outdated English website for Shingon Buddhism.

Tendai Buddhist Institute - Authorized Tendai Buddhism in North America!

shichisei.info - Information on Tendai Buddhism that is relevant to Touhou lore via the character of Matara Okina-sama and it's influence on Shugendo.

Taoism

Seiga Kaku uses her amazing Taoist arts and gives you a life lesson - Probably the most fun way to read Tao Te Ching. I am not joking, this is legitimately good.

Benebell Wen - Esoteric and some not so esoteric Taoism presented with breathtakingly information-packed videos that really highlight how internally interlocking Taoism is. She has also authored several books on Taoism.

Chinese Text Project - A vast resources of pre-modern Chinese text, including Taoist classics.

The Daoist Encyclopedia - Encyclopedia of Taoist thought in English.

Western Esoteric Tradition

Youkai Magic - Somewhat Japanese-flavored book that deals mostly with wide range of basic ideas related to the current Western magical tradition. If nothing else, it gives newcomers a big list of terms and ideas to delve deeper into.

ESOTERICA - This is *the* YouTube channel for the more historical side of Western esoteric tradition.

American Esoteric - Slightly more casually aproachable than the above, still the same focus on historical Western Esoteric Tradition.

Angela's Symposium - Focuses on more contemporary Western esoteric topics.

Foolish Fish - Mostly book reviews, but also some resources for those who wish to actually begin practicing Western magic.

Glitch Bottle - Podcast on contemporary Western esoteric topics.

General Paranormal & Fringe Topics

Mitch Horowitz - He also covers topics related to Western Esoteric Tradition, but makes a very forceful case for the reality of ESP.

New Thinking Allowed - Covers very broadly all kinds of paranormal & fringe topics with kind of a New Agey aproach.

Formscapes - For the extremely deep thinkers out there.

Planet Weird - While "ghost hunting" is a wretched topic, Dana & Greg have risen above the mire and have a very healthy and constructive view of the broadly speaking paranormal. Hellier is one of the finest depictions of getting dragged into an initiatory experience that I've seen and is worth a watch.

Think Anomalous - Videos on paranormal topics, particularly from the point of view of the ultraterrestrial hypothesis.

The Modern Fairy Sightings Podcast - You better start believing fairies are real. The Jason Atomic episode might be of particular interest to people here as he talks about a potential tengu encounter in Japan.