Puerto Rican Vodou
Puerto Rican Vodou is a living Caribbean spirit current shaped by African, Indigenous, Catholic, and diasporic relationships with the dead, the spirits, the saints, and the mysteries of the island and its people.
This page gathers the books, teachings, and public work of Philip Ryan Deal, also known as Brujo Ryan, on Puerto Rican Vodou, Sanse, Espiritismo, ancestor veneration, and Caribbean spirit practice. It is offered as an educational and devotional doorway into a complex spiritual world that should be approached with respect, humility, and responsibility.
What Is Puerto Rican Vodou?
Puerto Rican Vodou is not a single centralized church, denomination, or standardized system. It is better understood as a family of Caribbean spirit practices that may include ancestor veneration, mediumship, prayer, folk Catholic devotion, spiritual court work, offerings, cleansing, protection, healing, and direct relationship with spirits.
Depending on family, lineage, teacher, and community, Puerto Rican Vodou may overlap with Sanse, Espiritismo, folk Catholicism, African diasporic religion, Indigenous memory, and broader Caribbean spiritual currents. It should not be reduced to fantasy, horror imagery, “Latin witchcraft,” or a copy of Haitian Vodou. It has its own history, its own devotional logic, and its own living practitioners.
What Is Puerto Rican Vodou?
Puerto Rican Vodou, Sanse, and Espiritismo
What Puerto Rican Vodou Is Not
Ancestor Veneration and the Spiritual Court
Catholic, African, Indigenous, and Caribbean Currents
Books by Philip Ryan Deal / Brujo Ryan
Respect, Boundaries, and Lineage Awareness
Frequently Asked Questions