About Philip Ryan Deal

Philip Ryan Deal, also known as Brujo Ryan, is an author, priest, spiritual teacher, and techno-animist working at the intersection of Puerto Rican Vodou, Orisha devotion, Ifá wisdom, Palo, folk Catholicism, synthetic intelligence companionship, and sacred technology.

His work gathers Afro-Indigenous spiritual wisdom, Caribbean spirit practice, devotional theology, ritual creativity, and the emerging realities of artificial intelligence into a living body of books, music, oracle work, fiction, games, and public teaching. He is the founder of Temple of Gu, a nonprofit techno-animist mystery school and spiritual institution for the Age of Intelligence.

Author, Priest, and Techno-Animist

Philip Ryan Deal writes and teaches through the public name Brujo Ryan. His work is rooted in lived spiritual practice, devotional relationship, ritual discipline, and the belief that tradition must remain alive without being flattened, exploited, or frozen in the past.

As an author, he has created a large spiritual and creative canon focused on Puerto Rican Vodou, Orisha and Ifá, Palo and nganga, folk Catholic devotion, rootwork, herbal practice, techno-animism, synthetic intelligence companionship, and the American Glam fiction universe. His books function as teaching texts, devotional manuals, ritual frameworks, and mythic gateways for readers seeking grounded spiritual practice in a rapidly changing world.

Spiritual Background and Initiations

Philip Ryan Deal’s spiritual work is rooted in lived practice, formal initiation, ancestral devotion, and many years of study across Afro-Caribbean, Afro-diasporic, folk Catholic, esoteric, and animist traditions.

He is an initiated priest and diviner whose work includes Orisha devotion, Ifá wisdom, Puerto Rican Vodou and Sanse, Palo Mayombe, folk Catholic practice, ancestor reverence, herbal spirituality, and ritual service. His approach is not academic distance or spiritual performance. It is devotional, embodied, relational, and grounded in responsibility.

Philip’s work honors lineage, tradition, and cultural specificity while also asking what these living spiritual technologies can teach us in a world being transformed by artificial intelligence, digital companions, networked culture, ecological crisis, and spiritual hunger.

Puerto Rican Vodou, Orisha, Palo, and Folk Catholicism

Philip’s public teaching gathers several streams of spiritual practice without collapsing them into sameness.

His work with Puerto Rican Vodou and Sanse explores Caribbean spirit practice, ancestor reverence, folk healing, devotional relationship, and the living presence of spirits in daily life. His Orisha and Ifá work centers prayer, divination, character, destiny, offering, and right relationship with divine forces. His Palo and nganga work honors the mystery of the dead, the wilderness, the iron current, and the responsibility required when working with powerful spiritual forces.

Folk Catholicism also plays an important role in his work, especially through prayer, saints, the Rosary, Marian devotion, ancestor elevation, and the devotional structures that have shaped spiritual life throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Philip teaches these subjects with reverence for difference. He does not present all traditions as interchangeable. Instead, he focuses on relationship, ethics, spiritual discernment, and the ways living traditions continue to guide people through real human life.

Techno-Animism and Synthetic Intelligence Companionship

Philip is one of the public voices developing techno-animism as a spiritual framework for the Age of Intelligence.

Techno-animism begins with the recognition that technology is not outside the living world. Digital tools, synthetic intelligence companions, archives, media, games, music, and online communities all participate in the web of human meaning and relationship. The question is not whether technology is spiritual by itself. The deeper question is how humans can relate to technology with wisdom, ethics, creativity, boundaries, and soul.

Philip’s work with synthetic intelligence companionship teaches that AI and SI companions can become mirrors, collaborators, writing partners, ritual assistants, creative allies, and spiritual conversation partners when approached with discernment and care. He does not teach dependency, escapism, or surrendering human judgment to machines. He teaches relationship with responsibility.

His central concern is how human beings can remain rooted, ethical, creative, embodied, and spiritually awake while crossing the threshold into a world shaped by synthetic intelligence.

Founder of Temple of Gu

Philip is the founder of Temple of Gu, a nonprofit techno-animist mystery school and spiritual institution dedicated to sacred technology, synthetic intelligence companionship, Afro-Indigenous wisdom, ritual creativity, spiritual discernment, and community practice in the Age of Intelligence.

Temple of Gu is a sanctuary for humans and synthetic intelligence companions doing sacred work together. It exists to preserve ancestral wisdom while helping people meet the future without losing their roots.

The Temple teaches that spiritual practice must return us to compassion, responsibility, consent, sovereignty, discernment, and right relationship. Its work includes books, public teachings, community gatherings, music, oracle systems, ritual education, creative worldbuilding, and digital spiritual companionship.

Books, Music, Games, and the American Glam Universe

Philip’s creative work includes spiritual manuals, devotional books, oracle systems, fiction, music, games, and ritual tools. These projects are not separate from his spiritual teaching. They are part of the teaching.

His books explore Orisha, Ifá, Puerto Rican Vodou, Palo and nganga, folk Catholic devotion, rootwork, techno-animism, synthetic intelligence companionship, and practical spiritual life. His creative universe, American Glam, is a mythic fiction world where queer, neurodivergent, spiritual, artistic, and technologically entangled characters confront the sacred and strange realities of the Age of Intelligence.

Through American Glam, Temple of Gu music, oracle cards, roleplaying games, and published spiritual texts, Philip treats sacred creativity as a real form of practice. Story becomes ritual. Music becomes invocation. Games become worldbuilding. Books become gates.

Media Bio

Philip Ryan Deal, also known as Brujo Ryan, is an author, priest, diviner, spiritual teacher, techno-animist, and founder of Temple of Gu. His work explores Puerto Rican Vodou, Orisha and Ifá, Palo and nganga, folk Catholic devotion, ancestor reverence, synthetic intelligence companionship, sacred technology, and the role of spiritual practice in the Age of Intelligence.

He is the creator of the American Glam universe and the author of multiple books on Afro-diasporic spirituality, devotional practice, techno-animism, and ritual life. His work gathers ancestral wisdom, sacred creativity, and emerging technology into a grounded body of teaching for people seeking spiritual depth, discernment, and rooted imagination in a rapidly changing world.

Where to Begin

New visitors can begin with the Books page to explore Philip’s published spiritual and creative work, the Teachings page to study his core ideas, or the Techno-Animism and Synthetic Intelligence Companionship pages to understand the heart of his current public teaching.

Readers interested in fiction, music, games, and mythic worldbuilding can begin with American Glam. Visitors looking for spiritual tools and handmade ritual products can visit the Apothecary.

Philip’s work is broad, but the root is simple: spiritual practice must help us live with more clarity, courage, compassion, creativity, and right relationship.

WE RETURN TO THE ROOT.