devout-of-gensokyo

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Prayer to Nue Houjuu to Go Unidentified

-- ( Character Introduction: Nue Houjuu (noo-ayy hou-shjoo) is a nue, with the ability to make items, people, and other things become "unidentifiable". This makes them appear different to every person who sees them. She's generally shy about her true form herself. -- ( What is this: to go "unidentified" can be likened to going unnoticed or not fully seen. this can be used for all sorts of things, such as cloaking yourself as a witch. -- ( Further Suggestions: make an offering of snake iconography, trident iconography, things in both red and blue, drawings of cryptids, and food.

O Nue Houjuu, True Form of the Unidentified. I shield my eyes from your true form, I shield my ears from your true voice. I ask upon you so gently and so humbly, might you make me unidentified too.

(image cred: official Undefined Fantastic Object portrait) (banner cred: saradika-graphics)

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Anyways I got it mostly done but I'm gonna sleep then re-read it in the morning and adjust as needed. This one was especially written off the top of my head with minimal wiki scouring, so I wanna make sure it sounds good with a properly rested mind before I publish it!

Me: I'll make that spellcard post tomorrow Me, writing a post on spellcard rules right now because I'm feral about Touhou:

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Look every single aspect of the world fascinates me and if my Basics of Gensokyo series makes even one person go "Huh Touhou (PCP) sounds cool" I'll be happy. Not even if they get into it I don't care to legitimately convert people. I just want people to think Touhou is cool and Touhou PCP is COOL! BECAUSE IT IS!!!!!

Me: I'll make that spellcard post tomorrow Me, writing a post on spellcard rules right now because I'm feral about Touhou:

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Me: I'll make that spellcard post tomorrow Me, writing a post on spellcard rules right now because I'm feral about Touhou:

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What should I make the next basics of Gensokyo post on, hmm... A location, or on a fundamental aspect of the world like Spellcard Rules? Or rather on one of the incidents? I can't do a character because that defeats the purpose of quick start guides...

Which one sounds like it'd be the most entertaining~? Feel free to chime in in the replies if you have anything that you want to hear about. I'll make the post tomorrow after I've gotten some rest

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Something I've noticed in worshiping Yukari Yakumo is sometimes she sends her many shikigami (servants of an onmyouji, Japanese sorceror, most commonly likened to a witch's familiar) to handle her work for her. Like sometimes I call upon Yukari, and she sends one of her crows instead, or even Ran if she deems it important enough

I find that Yukari has a lot more familiars than seen in the print works and other canon, but that's a personal thing. "But Khajiit, don't most onmyouji only summon up to two at a time due to the intense pull of energy?" Don't forget that Yukari is one of the absolute strongest people in Gensokyo. It makes perfect sense that she'd be able to have many going all at once, even if she sleeps most of the time - One of her main shikigami, Ran, has her own shikigami, afterall. A true testament to the greatness of Yukari. Even canonically it's vague how many shikigami Yukari really has.

Haaaaah, though, I have so many guides that use crows as signs. It can be a little bit of a pain in discerning who is from who, and if the crows are even a sign or not.

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Some iconic Touhou lore is that the Tsuchigumo, earth spider youkai, are also REALLY good at construction of buildings and stuff like that

So not only can Yamame send you to the hospital by making you deathly ill, she's sending you to the hospital she helped build!

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Pardon me making a more direct comment than a tag comment but I feel this is especially important for Touhou PCP so I wanted to talk about it a little bit! All of the advice above is good and I'm more explaining why it's so important to listen to for Touhou PCP and how their ages (both their mental age and how long they've actually existed) applies to their worship/working with.

Many Touhous are either directly stated/implied to have child minds (Remilia Scarlet, Flandre Scarlet, Eika Ebisu, any fairy, etc); or are commonly read as children or young teens though this depends where you look in the fandom (Rumia, Wriggle Nightbug, Mystia Lorelai, etc).

As fairies or youkai or even a God in the case of Eika, they might still have wisdom beyond a humans years, due to having lived much longer than humans. Even Cirno is directly stated to be at least 80, but as fairies are embodiments of nature in Touhou lore, she could be hundreds of years old, even older than characters like Remilia (500+), we just don't know. As such, they might have more wisdom than you give them credit for, even if it's all verbalized in a childs manner.

As well, they're way stronger than a human is (youkai are known to eat humans in Gensokyo afterall) and thus can still be called upon for help with spells and tasks, as long as they're acceptable to them, their interests, etc. Like you can ask Cirno for help in a binding spell, because Cirno loves freezing frogs in a block of ice - and what's so different about doing the same to a person or object to bind it? Just give her something she would like in return, like candy.

But, they are still children or teenagers, minors in the end. They have the minds of minors, and you should behave and act accordingly. Just because characters like Remilia act all mature, doesn't erase the fact that she's still a child. Even canon states that she may be wise and fearsome, but she's mostly bored and prone to childish whims to stave away boredom. (Note: Some fans, outside of the PCP scene, do debate whether or not Remilia can actually be read as a child mentally, but like I get into below, I err on the side of caution. Children can act "mature" and exhibit the traits Remilia does, especially when they've lived since the 15th Century, and still be children. Touhou lore states nothing about how actual age affects mental age for the case of vampires like how it states all fairies are effectively eternal children - and we also see Flandre, 450+ who is much, much more openly childish than Remilia and actually read as a child commonly, despite the sisters being so close in age. I'll get into this more at a later date I think!)

Some notable exception characters to the "they're youkai so they're probably still wise" would be characters like Sakuya, who is so far implied/stated to be human, and stated to be anywhere between 10 to 20, though also directly implied to be much older in an Imperishable Night ending. Granted, there's still many benefits to worshiping/working with Sakuya, but you might miss out on some of the benefits of worshiping/working with a "more than a humans lifetime" being.

"Khajiit, so many/most Touhous have unspecified ages and could be either a late teen or an adult!" Yes, and this brings us to a problem within Touhou PCP. Some people read our protags, Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame, as teens, others as adults. I don't really know if there IS a right answer to a question like this, but my suggestion is to err on the side of caution with any true age uncertainty for a Touhou. I generally err towards "Reimu might be a teenager..." even though it's just as possible for her to be a fully grown adult. Because, y'know, caution!

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. Touhou PCP fun I have many emotions about it

I'm asking genuinely as a fellow PCP'er, but how do you work around worshiping/working with characters who are minors, if you adjust anything at all? I keep feeling like I need to walk on eggshells when it comes to it and adjust a lot of things about my usual route to be moral and just, or just plain not do it at all and I'm not sure the correct route. I know you have a lot of experience with PCP in general so I'm wondering your thoughts on the matter

Heya, Nonny!

So I talked to a fellow PCP'er (thanks @jasper-pagan-witch) and we both agree that you can absolutely worship/work with minor entities! There are a lot of things they can teach us or help us with. There are just a few things to remember if you do intend to interact with a minor entity:

1.) Stick to the entity's scope of knowledge for their age/world. Meaning you wouldn't ask Ash Ketchum (Pokémon) how to do your taxes or Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto) how to prepare for the bar exam because that is beyond their scope of knowledge and experience. Focus on the topics that they would know and understand.

2.) Treat them with the same level of respect you would an adult entity. Do not talk down to or disrespect an entity because you are older than them or know more on a certain subject. They deserve the same respect you would give any other entity in life.

3.) Be mindful of what you say and how you act. However, you do not have to walk on eggshells while working with minor entities. Just act how you would in front of a minor outside your practice. Minors can handle curse words, but there are certain topics that should be avoided, depending on the character's age.

4.) Don't be a creep. Do not engage in romantic or sexual relationships with minor entities. Do not ask minor entities for sexual advice. This shouldn't have to be said, but it does, so I'm here to say it. Don't be a creep.

5.) Learn to have fun with it! Let them teach you how to find that inner kid inside. Let them show you how to make new friends or follow your dreams. Minors have so much to teach us and they shouldn't be discounted simply because they are under the age of 18.

You don't have to avoid working with minor entities simply because you are over the age of 18. Minors have so much they can offer us! I hope this helps, Anon!

~Crimson

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Marisa Kirisame herself is fascinating from a hero worship perspective honestly. First off, she's a "Western style Eastern magician" (as in she's Japanese but practices a western style of magic), so I think giving her lessons on Western magic and Western occults would be a good offering - I think doing an oracle reading with her would be great or offering up a tarot deck.

She's humble and doesn't want to admit how hard she has to work for things, while also not being humble in any other way. (I think it's important to give Marisa more offering and devotional than she lets on would be appropriate because of this. She's not a God, she won't directly say "Worship me!" She'll go "Nah it was fun to help!")

Marisa serves as the "audience surrogate" - Being a completely ordinary human with no innate ability to skill, but having worked so, so, so hard for her skills and to be the Number 2 in all of Gensokyo. (A title she proudly proclaims for herself) - and asks questions for the sake of the audience/players to have answers.

She's easy to make offering for, because she collects basically everything... to a detrimental degree, though. But give her some mushrooms or a magical tool and she's the happiest person on earth.

She's also known to be a habitual liar, but it's usually nothing severe. She's known canonically to have before claimed to be Reimu Hakurei mostly just to fuck with people, and I've never had a problem with her habitual lying because she's generally bold enough to be completely honest as long as it doesn't impact her negatively, and if called out, she usually laughs and admits "Yeah I was lying lol".

Granted, I can say EVERY Touhou is fascinating. Because they all are. But Marisa... so many thoughts.

Y'know, the fact Marisa's magic in-universe is described as being tremendously powerful, but has very few non-destructive usages, I think she'd get a kick outta cursing the shit outta someone.

Now, canonically, this is more about her spellcards than anything else, but if we take it to represent all of their magic... yeah, I think Marisa would get a kick outta cursing the shit outta someone. I'm adding that to her quick start

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Y'know, the fact Marisa's magic in-universe is described as being tremendously powerful, but has very few non-destructive usages, I think she'd get a kick outta cursing the shit outta someone.

Now, canonically, this is more about her spellcards than anything else, but if we take it to represent all of their magic... yeah, I think Marisa would get a kick outta cursing the shit outta someone. I'm adding that to her quick start

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Keine Kamishirasawa as a Healer of Trauma

(This post written by a traumatized individual, by the way. It might portray some of my ideals about trauma recovery, how I'd like to recover, that might not match others ideals.)

Keine has two skills: The "eating" of history and the creation of history. The best way to explain this is through her choices in the Imperishable Night incident, where she ate the history of the Human Village so it never existed in the first place to protect the humans, before reverting it by re-creating all of the history come morning and the resolution of the incident.

Consider for a moment about how trauma is a part of a persons history. While Keine, as much as it sucks, can't literally eat up your history here and make it so you were never traumatized in the first place, one can work alongside her to begin unworking the strands of that trauma by facing your history.

Keine is also a history teacher, who takes on a mentor role with pretty much everyone she approaches and speaks to.

How can Keine help with trauma? She can act as a mentor through shadow work, can stand by your side and soothe you as you begin working through your trauma. She can help you accept that which has happened to you.

While trauma can't be erased, it can be soothed. Keine would be a great teacher to help with that.

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For the emoji ask game: 🌟🐉🐺 (if you can't see them for watever reason, it's star, dragon, and wolf)

~Jasper

Kasen Ibaraki! She's a hermit who is a Sage (star), who takes care of a lot of animals including a dragon (dragon and wolf, though she doesn't have a wolf, only a tiger). She also happens to be an Oni, one of the Big Four of the Mountain, albeit this group is now defunct.

Let's see... Kasen Ibaraki was at first a major ????? within the fandom, because her reveal as a youkai sage came along years later in the manga than her original debut. She's been a hermit since at least 1980 (Touhou follows the same time as us - which means they just celebrated New Years! Happy 2025, Gensokyo!), though she didn't debut back then, they're just saying she's been a hermit for a hot minute.

She's missing an arm, which was presumably severed from her because it was full of evil and made her evil. However, when they reunited, the spirit of the arm attempted to fully possess Kasen, before Reimu cut it off. Kasen now keeps it in a mummified state nearby herself as a reminder to be a good person.

She has a very non-hermit-like traits, such as still eating food (Hermits can survive on just eating fog or haze alone), but she's such a strict adherent of being a hermit that even when fusing again with her evil arm, she still chose to be a hermit and be at peace.

There's also some possibility that she's meant to be more of a rishi, a person who dispels wisdom. Those are often considered as Buddhist saints - though Kasen adheres to Taoism.

Alongside the rest of the hermit, some people believe she's pretending to be a hermit for some reason or another, likely to further her own goals, but she does have some skills that relate into being a hermit.

While her abilities are never directly stated in any canon, she has an ability to communicate with animals. She also has an ability to guide and "transfigure" youkai into new selves.

Her fake arm, made of black smoke but wrapped in bandages, has the ability to crush vengeful spirits, removing them from the cycle of reincarnation entirely, which Komachi Onozuka (think Charon plus Shinigami, and you got the right idea) has no idea how she does it.

She is seen as preachy and overly critical of others, sadly. She volunteers herself to others with advice and help, even when it's not wanted.

How can Kasen be in PCP?

Kasen isn't a Kami, so of course hero worship.

Kasen can be worshiped for matters of self control, learning wisdom, animal communication, as well as cryptid communication as her named pets are cryptids.

How about PCW?

For Kasen, a ritual for finalizing a familiar relationship could rely on Kasen.

She can be called upon to deal with vengeful spirits, either as a mediator or an exorcist, though I'd not go straight to exorcism, especially because Kasen probably wouldn't abide by it very well lol. She's more likely to pick peace when possible (and preaching) before moving into banishment.

Here's a picture of her! From Who's Who of Humans & Youkai - Everlasting Edition, which is a Touhou artbook with information about the characters within.

Thanks for letting me ramble, Jasper! Feel free to send more if you want! I won't complain lol, but no pressure!

(I'll be reblogging this to my Touhou PCP/PCW blog as well!)

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Really this is a joke but it works. Like if I want to make offering to Eirin Yagokoro because I asked her for help with my migraine? but I don't have anything else for her? Just turn on Gensokyo Millenium ~ History of the Moon. or Voyage 1960. Find a nice sounding remix. Hit play. Easy offering every time

If all else fails with Touhou offerings, just blast every remix you can find of their theme at a reasonable, healthy volume as to not damage your ears

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If all else fails with Touhou offerings, just blast every remix you can find of their theme at a reasonable, healthy volume as to not damage your ears

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This blog has existed 2 days and there's already 41 posts (42 with this) can you guys tell I've been hyperfixating /lighthearted

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This general idea also applies to Hecatia Lapislazuli and Hekate. Just take out Shinto and insert Hellenic Polytheism instead. I'm not making two/more posts that are basically the same just to say the same thing for Hecatia/Hekate.

Same for other cases like Junko and Xuán Qī, Sagume and Ame-no-Sagume, etc.

The links between each of these are in the same zone of "there's some likenesses and some not", where it's basically a Touhou based off an our world god/kami/folklore story/etc. A good chunk of Touhous are based on something else, which leads for a lot of this happening!

Eirin Yagokoro and Omoikane

This is a bit of an odd post, and focuses more on a canon-adjacent "the gods/etc come from the fiction" PCP method than my usual viewpoint of where the Gods come from (which is a "they exist individually of fiction and were put into fiction"). This whole post is a lot of back and forth thinking out loud about this stuff in case it activates some thoughts in others.

Eirin Yagokoro is very likely based off of the kami Ame no Yagokoro Omoikane no Mikoto.

How the heck does this relate into PCP?

Well, there's two possible roads available to us. (A. View Eirin as Her own individual, a new God based off of an old one. (B. View Eirin as an aspect of Omoikane.

Both have their pros, and their cons, and I think it's very up to each Touhou Project pagan to decide what route to take. I wanna make clear that either route is valid, because in the end what matters is the worship of Eirin Yagokoro, or whatever relationship you have with Her, nothing else.

If we view Eirin as her own individual, we acknowledge that when we make OCs based on the Gods, they can become their own Gods in their own right. If I were to sit down and make a new OC, based off of Zeus, give them their own name and rulerships and all that, could we consider them their own God, instead of as Zeus?

Or, would we have just created a new aspect of Zeus, through our OC that we have thus began to worship? If we do this, we view Eirin not as her own individual person per se, but as a facet/aspect of Omoikane that happens to exist within the Touhou universe.

The kami are said to exist within the Touhou universe even outside of this - Such as Mishaguji, the curse gods, who Suwako Moriya (a Touhou original god), has under her control.

But Eirin exists in an odd zone. She is both a Touhou original god, as well as based off of a kami from this world (Omoikane).

For me personally, as a PCPagan and a Shinto practitioner, I do both - I honor Omoikane when the need arises, and I honor Eirin Yagokoro when the need arises*¹. But, I view Eirin as Her own person, not an aspect of Omoikane.

Let's tackle it a bit deeper.

If we view Eirin Yagokoro as Her own person, we might ultimately be detaching part of Her from Her "basis" as Omoikane. While Eirin, in canon, has a lot of similarities to Omoikane, She also has Her differences - Omoikane is not a kami of illness or doctors, but rather wisdom and intelligence, of which Eirin can be said to be a Kami of Doctors, as well as wisdom and intelligence. However, this doesn't really stop us from going over to Omoikane's stuff and going "What if?" and attaching it to Eirin Yagokoro. It might also be a good thing to detach Her from her "basis" as Omoikane, especially if we're worshiping Her as Her own individual.

If we view Eirin Yagokoro as an aspect of Omoikane, we might ultimately end up reducing some aspects of Her Touhou counterpart to instead worship of Omoikane. However, this might provide an even bigger starting point than if we just consider Eirin as purely a Touhou character within Touhou lore. To view Eirin as Her own person leads for us to "lose access" to some stuff that would really help in worshiping Her.

As well, the latter can enter an odd spot for anybody not a Shinto practitioner, especially as you cannot, I repeat, cannot worship a kami the way you do a non-kami*². But my point being, Eirin Yagokoro might get "locked out" of Touhou Project paganism if we view Her only as an aspect of Omoikane.

So... essentially. Pick whatever the heck you want.

My stance is, for clarity, and repeating at the end of the post for clarity, Eirin is Her own person. I go purely off of Touhou lore than meshing Her lore with Omoikane's, mostly because I also worship Omoikane. No need to meld the two for me.

*¹ tl;dr for if my post escapes containment, my style of paganry is kinda like "entity juggling" where I honor as needed for my life or when I am offered help.

*² It's generally accepted amongst dual faith Pagan and Shinto communities that it's very, very, very disrespectful to house Kami and worship them the way you would, say, Zeus. Shinto has its own rules that need to be abided by. You can do both at once, you can house them next to each other, but each faiths individual rules must be followed to be properly respectful and not earn the wrath of the Kami or the Gods.

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Basics of Gensokyo: The Hakurei Shrine

The Hakurei Shrine sits inside the border, the Great Hakurei Barrier. It is inhabitated by:

Reimu Hakurei

The Hakurei Kami/God

SinGyoku (unknown, no longer canon due to being PC-98)

Genjii (pond behind the shrine, dubious canon despite being a PC-98) (ZUN has stated he's there but no canon info exists)

The Three Fairies of Light: Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire (tree behind the shrine)

Clownpiece (underneath the shrine)

Some other characters attributed to the Hakurei Shrine but are not permanent residents are:

Mima (haunts occasionally, no longer canon due to being PC-98)

Kana Anaberal (haunts occasionally, no longer canon due to being PC-98)

Suika Ibuki (visits)

Kasen Ibaraki (visits)

Shion Yorigami (temporary resident)

Aunn Komano (occasionally guards)

Originally, the Hakurei Shrine was the only shrine, before Moriya Shrine came to Gensokyo, in which then the Buddhist Myouren Temple and the Taoist Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum showed up later on.

The Hakurei Shrine also predates the existence of the Barrier, and is known to the outside world, albeit it appears old and abandoned there, but it is near a city. More info on its existence in the Outside World is unknown other than it being in Japan, obviously. Before the existence of Gensokyo, the shrine was maintained by the Miyadeguchi family, making it likely that Mizuchi Miyadeguchi is in somewhat linked to the shrine itself.

On the Gensokyo side, it's high in the mountains which is about an hour on foot from the Human Village. It's not a difficult trip, except for in heavy snow, but most humans don't make the trip due to danger of the trail.

Officially, the shrine neither exists in Gensokyo nor the Outside World, due to existing on the Hakurei Barrier. Traveling through the shrine to either other side requires certain unknown conditions to be met.

However, due to being on the barrier, items and people fall through the barrier from time to time. This leads for youkai and collectors alike to be very wary of the shrine, even if they don't always understand the items that come through.

The shrine is a hangout for lots of youkai, and is at the other end of an animal trail which is also frequented by youkai, so (normal) human visitors are quite slim. Even fewer humans leave donations, leaving for Reimu to live in relative poverty, though it's known that Yukari Yakumo makes donations behind Reimu's back to support her.

The God of the Hakurei Shrine is known canonically to be very angry at not being worshiped, in part because they no longer have much power due to it. It's possible that, if we follow canon lore about forgetting = vanishing, the only reason the Hakurei God still exists is because they technically have not been forgotten. This is also supported by the fact that Rinnosuke Morichika claims to know the name of the Hakurei God, and Byakuren Hijiri claims that she can sense that the God is very angry.

The Hakurei Shrine gives out omamori, but because of all of this, it's unclear if they actually work. No canon information exists on the effectiveness of the omamori.

The Hakurei Shrine has been attacked and even destroyed by youkai several times over the course of the games. It can still serve as a shrine in these cases, but not a place to live. It's usually rebuilt quickly, on one occasion by a group of celestials as apology from Tenshi Hinanawi from destroying it.

The actual shrine is old-fashioned and offers poor protection from the cold. There is a grove of cherry trees behind the shrine, which remains a particularly popular spot for flower viewing in spring, at least for youkai. There's a donation box, but it's usually empty. There also exists a warehouse for the shrine.

Since the events of Mountain of Faith, Reimu constructed a small shrine, about the size of a birdhouse, to Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya at the edge of the Hakurei Shrine's grounds in an attempt to gather more faith for her own shrine. Despite its very small size, it does get occasional visitors from the Human Village.

Sources/Further Reading:

Hakurei Shrine | Touhouwiki

Hakurei God | Touhouwiki