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Starry Mountain of Tenma

Touhou 10 birthchart analysis

First thing i'd like to bring attention too in this chart in specific is that ZUN has just gone through his Saturn return, the implications of this are further elucidated if you read this. But TL;DR/recap, ZUN has a childhood-created creatively-limiting Saturn which he uses Touhou as an artistic expression to fight against(and very much suceeds, as if he didn't i wouldn't be writing this). Saturn conjuncting Saturn is the culmination of it, the moment where one is forced to go against his own limitations and evolves lots with it; Right after Touhou 9, ZUN goes through his Saturn return during the whole year preceding MoF. This means a lot as the conjunction of planets also means the creation of something new which will be developed with time(in later games we will see this specific aspect come up again).

In this case, the "something new" wasn't a new game, but just a new expression of Touhou. This very much shows a lot, as Touhou 10 is called a "soft reboot" of the series, with the characters again being reduced to just Reimu and Marisa, a new engine and a new vision towards the game's worldbuilding. Truly a marvel of ZUN sensei's power, showing us mortals how to defeat your Saturn with style. Now onto the general analysis.

Analysis

As always, looking at the Venus of that chart, we find it conjuncting the Sun, a strange reflection of the Touhou 6 chart having Mars on the Sun. Venus also conjuncts Mercury and Saturn, putting all of those together on Leo, really reinforcing the overall new outlook on the worldbuilding and the new direction the series started going.

Leo is the natural entertainment sign, the manifestation of the cosmic force which inhabits all conscious life, the second step of the fire element in consciousness itself, action and reaction of the duality of wills. Thus, the sign that rules entertainment. And Venus (ruler of the game) being there with all those planets (Sun, the consciousness, Mercury, the thinking/logic behind it) and mainly Saturn, ruling structure and "weight" of a being, represents the way more structured sense of world that Gensokyo took during that game, one could even call it the moment which Touhou as a pantheon actually gained a true place of inhabitance, the culmination of the native spirit's works, the coming alive of Gensokyo.

North node and spirituality

This all can again be seem at the north node being at 5th house, which i in previous analysis called the world of gensokyo itself. Speaking of the North node, it's on the sign of pisces, meaning a karmic coming of the soul from earthly(virgo) to celestial (pisces); Which is pretty fitting for a game called "Mountain of Faith" of all things. The gods which inhabit that game can also be seem by Jupiter being at Sagittarius on the second house, the house of possesions. Jupiter on Sagitarius is by far it's strongest form, Jupiter representing the higher consciousness, the expanding of the consciousness towards the final stage of intuition(the fire element), which is faith, belief, and highering of the self towards soul evolution. Pluto is also on Sagittarius, being affected by the jupiterian forces active in that moment, Pluto brings transformation, it rules death itself, the dissolution of the material into new emotional and spiritual forces, and Pluto is in Sagittarius trining all the planets at Leo, thus bringing all of them together into a transformative higher than physical manner. From all those aspects you can already see how much this game was important, not only for the series but also for the spirits inhabiting it.

There's way more aspects which reinforce the spiritual implications of this game, but i'll not talk of them because it'd be too repetitive. But just for the record if anyone wants to research them:

Stage by stage analysis

Going to the gameplay, we see that Mars rules the gameplay (sixth house Aries), Mars finds itself on the eighth on Gemini, opposing Jupiter in Sagittarius. I believe that the Mars in Gemini represents Marisa, while the Jupiter in Sagittarius represents Reimu(i have no basis for that claim besides that it fits so i'll not expand on it). Going with the same logic of stages done in the last analysis, we can see the first AND second stage are both also ruled by Mars. Mars, as said before, is in Gemini, the general sign not only of the movement of the intellect towards the lower material reality, but also physical moving around. Mars agressively opposes Jupiter, which is the general planet of faith, highering of consciousness and long distance travel. This is a sign of how through the first 2 stages, we fight 2 gods(Mars opposes JUPITER in SAGITTARIUS), to just forcefully(Mars) deslocate(gemini) ourselves towards the long term objective at the peak of the mountain(Jupiter).

At the third and fourth stage, we see they're ruled by Venus (Taurus) and Mercury(Gemini) respectively, which are both conjuncting all the planets at Leo, this is not only a sign of how peak the ost there is, but also of how the third and fourth stage are very much the essence of the entire game itself. Also notable talking of the scientific nature of Nitori conjuncting both Saturn and Mercury, and the Aya stage being the Ninth house(house of publishing) ruled by Gemini("The messenger") of all things. (Notable to also cite that Tengus in general are by nature, Mercurian.)

the fifth Stage is ruled by the Moon, the Moon is at Libra, an Air sign, the natural sign of balance/connections, the Venusian equilibrium between logic and idealism, the activity and expansion of life in a fair manner. Sanae is found on that stage, Sanae being someone who came from the outside world, estabilishing a connection between the heavens(Gensokyo) and earth(outside world) not only in her bringing, but also in her own nature, as she is both a shrine maiden like Reimu (watch how Moon trines Mars), but also a god of her own (Moon sextiles Jupiter). Sanae also worships the god of wind(Libra is an Air sign!), while also bringing faith to herself(again the sextile of Jupiter). Notably, the moon finds itself at the isolated 12th house, which is the seventh house of the sixth. This could be another sign of how Sanae comes from the outside world.

Kanako

The sixth stage is ruled by Virgo, the sign of the yin interiors of the earth which the seed of consciousness is then germinated on(to then be transmuted into the transcendence at pisces), the sign of sow and reaping, physical/earthly karma and transforming. In that stage we fight against Kanako, who is the goddess that wants to steal all faith in Gensokyo, having the ruler of the stage as Mercury, which is at Leo, conjuncting Sun, Saturn and Venus. Mercury in the chart rules both the eleventh house(organizations) and the ninth(religion), conjuncting almost all that came before it. The ways of gaining faith that Kanako uses are overall very unorthodox and more business/sciency like than anything, which is shown on the overall swap of Mercury ruling religion instead of Jupiter on the chart. Also on that same topic, the game has Virgo(earthly, grindy, analytical) south node and Pisces(celestial, faithful) north node, showing the mission of our own 2 protagonists, not only highering themselves physically by going up the mountain, but also the overall lesson about faith. From Kanako's POV (watching from the eleventh house of the chart, as it's the sixth stage), Mars rules both where she lives(4th) and the religion(9th), Mars is in Gemini, showing not only how she recently moved in(by force) and also her overall secular approach towards faith.

Watching the nodes from Kanako's pov, make it so that the south node is at first house(focused on one's own interests) and north node is at seventh(the equilibrium of one and others' interests, focus on relationships). Kanako's second house is the 12th, having Sanae(libra moon) at it, and the third house is the ascendant, which could represent transcendentally that the game's manifestation(asc) has a message(3rd) of Kanako-sama herself. Going over more religious aspects, as Gensokyo itself is ruled by the 5th, the ascendant is Gensokyo's ninth house(religion), meaning that the game is a manifestation of Gensokyo's faith, and also, the faith is ruled by Venus(Libra), which at this game is conjuncted by Saturn, thus the reestructuring/entrenching of the faith of Gensokyo.

Suwako Moriya

Suwako is the extra stage boss of Touhou 10, she's found as the protagonist keeps advancing further into the mountain. To find her in the chart, we first must find the mountain itself. Kanako lives there, so, we can use the 4th of the 11th; Which is the second house on the chart, ruled by Scorpio. In that house, we find Jupiter in Sagittarius, opposing the house ruler, Mars. The Sagittarius Jupiter is Suwako herself, the original God of the mountain. You can also see this by Jupiter ruling the third house, which would be the second house (Posessions) of the Mountain. Also, jupiter rules the 5th house on the chart, which can be seen as the 12th house(secrets) from the 6th(the gameplay itself and the beginning of the stages), therefore the Extra Stage.

I will hold myself from monologing about how incredible is a pure-faith God being Jupiter in Sagittarius of all things, and directly onto the aspects. It conjuncts the point of fortune and sextiles the Moon(Sanae + Kanako's 12th) and the Chiron, while stressfully aspecting all the things that came before in the game by tri-octiling the planets in Leo.

Jupiter sextiles the Chiron at Kanako's sixth house(The chart's 4th). The sixth house is the house of work, service and day to day life; That harmonious aspect could mean how she "handles most of the divine services while Kanako handle the sales.", important to also note that Chiron is in Suwako's second house, meaning that her main wound is having lost what she had (the mountain). This can be seen again in Suwako's fourth house (the chart's 6th) being ruled by Mars which opposes it. Though, as said before, Jupiter Sextiles the Chiron, a harmonious aspect, meaning the overall victory of Suwako getting more faith despite losing the mountain.

Extra spiritual considerations

Suwako(jupiter) is at the game's point of Fortune; the game's God being at the fortune point is an aspect that will repeat itself again in other games(see future Touhou 16 article). Jupiter sextiles the game's MC ruler, the Moon, which not only rules the native gods(by the sign of Cancer's natural definition), but is also at the game's 12th, the transcendence and Karmic house. Also, the game's moon gains extra importance when you watch the sinastry of this game to Touhou 1

On that chart you can not only see clearly what was Touhou 16 to the series(th10's Saturn's position on th1's objective(Moon), meaning the reestructuring of it), but also a very clear karmic aspect on the moon, conjuncting perfectly the north node of the series(down to the decimals, off by just 0'06.) which represents how that "self" at Libra proclaimed by the Moon, would guide the series to it's future. Jupiter(Suwako) Sextiles the Moon and so also the Touhou series' North node, bringing about a divine guidance to Touhou.

This analysis surprised even me with how much aspects really show the tenth game of the series' inner divinity. Guess this is what a man with his mind connected to spirits (Mercury in pisces) does when he has his Saturn return.