A.C.'s Bio warts & all
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Hi, everyone! This is my lengthy, warts-and-all biography for people who want to know more about me.
I am called A.C. or Ace. I practice a type of folk magick from the British Isles, specifically the Cymric (Welsh) and West Country British traditions. This is not at all spooky or difficult; in fact, it’s fun. And maybe if I keep practicing hard enough, some day I’ll get all of it right, hee hee! These old-line folkways were brought to America, where they continue today. I write both fictional and non-fiction books about this topic. Otherwise, my life is blessedly, wonderfully boring.
I was born Alice Carole Fisher on Oct. 11, 1962 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I currently live in beautiful Bangor, Michigan, nearby the Big Lake, with my spouse of 41 years, David N. Aldag.
All of this family history is germane, and I'll get to the point in a minute. My mother was Carolyn Green, who was born in LaPeer MI but lived in Flint, AuSable, Delton, and Mandan, a tiny town in Michigan's heavily wooded Upper Peninsula. Mandan is now a ghost town. Carolyn was the daughter of first- and second-generation immigrants from England and Wales, mostly Celtic and Saxon, who also had a few Jewish roots. Their parents were "convict laborers" and indentured servants working in the mines, the lumber industry and as household domestics. Carolyn was the first of her family ever to attend college, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She worked at Upjohn (now Pfizer) as a biochemical technician, where she met and married my dad, Glenn Jr. Fisher, called "Bud". He was abandoned by his alcoholic mother at age 2 and never knew his father. They were of Celtic and Germanic roots, says a genetics test. After serving in WWII, Bud got a job as a lab tech at Upjohn. He had only an 8th grade education... but he was a really loving, caring father.
My mother had serious problems with depression, brought on by being an overly-educated female in the early 60s, who felt peer-pressured into having a child, instead of continuing her career. She would have been much happier as a scientist than as a parent. Consequently, I was often raised by my maternal grandparents... who were schooled in woodscraft, farming, homemaking, art-crafts and folk magick. My grandma got married at age 14, had 5 children (4 who survived to adulthood). My grandpa served as a county sheriff as well as a hunting guide, and ran a grist mill 'til mechanization made that job obsolete. I have fond memories of growing up in a bucolic forest setting in the UP, watching bears, moose, and bobcats, and also listening to dulcimer and fiddle music, while learning their folk traditions. We also lived on a tiny lake in a small mid-state farming community called Delton.
When I was an adolescent, I returned to Kalamazoo, a fairly large college town, where my parents had bought a home in a bourgeois neighborhood. It was a huge adjustment. As a youngster who'd run wild in the woods for years, and talked like a redneck, who was also handicapped (serious visual impairment and a congenital deformity that affects my walking gait) I was not accepted by the other kids in that location. Being "witchy" only made me more of a pariah.
Consequently, I totally went off the rails. I tried every legal and illegal mind-altering substance, was promiscuous, became an armed enforcer against people who owed money to drug dealers, and associated with unsavory characters who had ties to disorganized crime. I chose the Thug Life... and yes, it was totally a choice. A bad, stupid choice. And I own that.
At age 14, I met David Aldag, the man who became my husband, life partner, and best friend. We both attended Loy Norrix HS in Kalamazoo, where I graduated when I was 16. Dave and I were romantically involved by the time I was age 15 and married legally at age 19. Dave was /is from a much more educated and higher socioeconomic class than me. He has also had shamanic training.
We moved into a sketchy neighborhood in 1983. After some scary near-misses by criminal types, including a violent home invasion by addicts seeking drugs, we decided to straighten ourselves out and return to the nature religion of my ancestors and the shamanic tradition Dave had studied. I quit using all illegal substances "cold turkey" -- yes that is possible, and not that difficult, really -- stopped associating with thugs, and we both got real jobs, and went to college. Magick really helped in that process.
We met many neo-Pagans around 1985 and learned about Wicca, Asatru, and Druidry. However, we declined any initiations and refused to join any covens. Dave volunteered to serve in the US Army to "give back", and to have steady employment. He fought to make the military put "Wiccan" on his dog tags, one of the first soldiers to have that distinction.
We also tried the communal family / polyamory thing, which works if all partners are honest and are functional together. Unfortunately, ours weren't. Yet as a result, we have a wonderful, creative offspring, Rhiannon, born in 1987.
After serving in the Persian Gulf War, Dave was honorably discharged and got jobs in trucking and the postal service. We taught neo-Paganism as well as our ancestral traditions. To make up for past thuggin', we became "pillars of the community" and joined many civic organizations as well as neo-Pagan groups. And we had lots of fun, too!
We moved from our crappy inner-city neighborhood to a small farming community near beautiful Lake MI in 1995. There, we could practice nature spirituality in a natural environment, surrounded by deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, songbirds, and other wildlife -- even a badger. We can have bonfires and drum circles in our backyard. Our garden is huge. Together, we restored our 1911 Sears-kit farmhouse. Our son Brandyn was born at home in 1996. We continued to teach the Cymric (Welsh) folk magick tradition, based on the earth spirituality of my family, as well as shamanic ways and neo-Paganism.
During these years, we helped put on several Pagan Pride events, co-sponsored the Pan Pagan festival, hosted many holiday celebrations, and founded two legal Pagan churches (one was the second ever incorporated Pagan religious organization in MI, the other the first Pagan non-profit in our state). We also were part of many local charities and community activities. We fought our township for the right to religious assembly and won, setting a precedent for first amendment rights nationwide. We also joined the quest to have Pagan religious emblems put on veterans' tombstones. We demanded that Scouting accept Pagan kids, as well as taught public schools about 1st Amendment religious rights. Our family was very openly Pagan in our small town, doing hand-fastings, child blessings, kids' activities, holiday celebrations and folkplays. We both worked hard. And we still had lots of fun!
Unfortunately, Dave discovered he had Gulf War Syndrome, caused by airborne toxins, which resulted in over 15 years of fighting for recognition from the government, painful medical testing, grueling treatments, lost time at work, and serious physical problems. And devastating poverty, as all those tests were terribly expensive, coupled with lost work days. The VA refused to pay their share, until Dave won his claim. These events put us both in a very dark place. I was quite embittered that veterans have such difficulty attaining their contractually-obligated compensation, and medical treatment, for conditions caused by honorable military service.
This struggle led me to embrace fiscal conservatism and veterans' rights, and to become politically active. We joined veterans' organizations and I fought for the rights of disabled people in education, employment, and in society. I also fight for individuals' responsibilities. If I can accomplish stuff -- with my background, past bad choices, and physical handicaps -- then so can anyone else!
As a result of my (loud, strident) calls for fiscal and social responsibility, a few disgruntled people came out of the woodwork to denounce me. One of their accusations was that my folk religion was made-up. Another dig was at my lack of a college degree. In response, I began to research British Isles folklore, magick, Witchcraft, Celtic and Saxon legends, and surviving folkways, and compared them to my own heritage of nature spirituality. The naysayers actually did me a favor, motivating me to find hundreds of traditional European folkways. I discovered that Wiccan founder Gerald Gardner had written about some genuinely older Witchcraft and folk magick practices, as did Cecil Williamson & Roy Bowers / Robert Cochrane. I wrote the series "Another Pagan History: what's really old, and what likely ain't" for Witchvox in 2006. It got over 7,000 hits in its first month online. (It's on this website, on the page called "Works".) I also wrote articles for Llewellyn Worldwide, BBI Media, and Circle Magazine.
When I was in my late 40s, I reconnected with one of the "criminal masterminds" I'd known from my years as a teenage thug. In prison, he practiced a form of shamanism, and was deeply involved in the ecology movement as a way to redeem himself. Yep, the rumors are true. I do not regret talking with him during his last years alive. And no, I did not fall back into thuggery... I am still responsible and boring. It gives people something to gossip about, though.
In 2010, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Although I had surgery, I refused further treatment. No chemo. No radiation. No conventional Western medicines. Instead, I chose natural remedies and magick. Although I cannot recommend this solution for everyone, I have been cancer-free for 14 years... beating a disease that has an average survival rate of 3 to 5 years. Magick really works!*
*The test to measure a presence of cancer, called a Cancer Antigen test, or CA-125, measured me as having 416 U/mL. Normal is <35 U/mL. Yes, I really had cancer. Yes, it really went away.
Purely out of spite, I finished my degree at Western Michigan University in 2017 at 54 years of age, just so I could claim to be as edu-ma-cated as my detractors. It was almost worth the $30 grand in student loan debt, LOL. I squander my education by writing a Facebook site about news and events in our tiny, underserved rural community, called "Bangor Apple Press". But it's fun.
Rhiannon and Brandyn grew up, married nice people, and got on with their lives. Rhiannon drew many of the lovely illustrations on this site. Brandyn is now heading our legal Pagan organization, Caer n'Donia y Llew**
**This is old Welsh / Cymraeg for "House of the Goddess and God" whose names are Donia & Llew. If you just type it into a translator, it comes up as something like "fortress of the endowed lion". Caer = castle, royal house, fort, hill. Llew = the lion with long hands = the Sun. Donia = the endowed one = the Earth, which likely came from the old Brythonic word for a female deity: Deuina. Grammatically correct it is "Caer o Donia a Llew".
Anyway. Dave is still in pretty good shape, all things considered. Partly as a result of my constant harping, as well as complaints from thousands of other vets and their families, our government began spending more time and money on researching Gulf War Syndrome. The VA has streamlined the process for appealing compensation claims. I had a tiny miniscule part in that, but it was utterly fulfilling.
In 2017, I began writing "Common Magick" to pass on the legacy of folk religion, nature spirituality, and British folkways. I researched the topic from older books, museums, and tourist pamphlets, then compared this information to my own tradition. Fascinating stuff! Currently, I am working on "Common Part Two". I've found reverence for horned entities that existed in Britain prior to the Roman incursions, surviving rites of earth religions that are similar to my own, unique folktales and stories, "hex foils" or "witches' marks" all over the place, many versions of the "stag hunt" folkplay worldwide, and spells and divination methods that really work.
I've also written several works of fiction about Celtic people who actually use the old-world folk magick. These traditions make me very happy, so I hope readers have the same experience.
I am called A.C. or Ace. I practice a type of folk magick from the British Isles, specifically the Cymric (Welsh) and West Country British traditions. This is not at all spooky or difficult; in fact, it’s fun. And maybe if I keep practicing hard enough, some day I’ll get all of it right, hee hee! These old-line folkways were brought to America, where they continue today. I write both fictional and non-fiction books about this topic. Otherwise, my life is blessedly, wonderfully boring.
I was born Alice Carole Fisher on Oct. 11, 1962 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I currently live in beautiful Bangor, Michigan, nearby the Big Lake, with my spouse of 41 years, David N. Aldag.
All of this family history is germane, and I'll get to the point in a minute. My mother was Carolyn Green, who was born in LaPeer MI but lived in Flint, AuSable, Delton, and Mandan, a tiny town in Michigan's heavily wooded Upper Peninsula. Mandan is now a ghost town. Carolyn was the daughter of first- and second-generation immigrants from England and Wales, mostly Celtic and Saxon, who also had a few Jewish roots. Their parents were "convict laborers" and indentured servants working in the mines, the lumber industry and as household domestics. Carolyn was the first of her family ever to attend college, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She worked at Upjohn (now Pfizer) as a biochemical technician, where she met and married my dad, Glenn Jr. Fisher, called "Bud". He was abandoned by his alcoholic mother at age 2 and never knew his father. They were of Celtic and Germanic roots, says a genetics test. After serving in WWII, Bud got a job as a lab tech at Upjohn. He had only an 8th grade education... but he was a really loving, caring father.
My mother had serious problems with depression, brought on by being an overly-educated female in the early 60s, who felt peer-pressured into having a child, instead of continuing her career. She would have been much happier as a scientist than as a parent. Consequently, I was often raised by my maternal grandparents... who were schooled in woodscraft, farming, homemaking, art-crafts and folk magick. My grandma got married at age 14, had 5 children (4 who survived to adulthood). My grandpa served as a county sheriff as well as a hunting guide, and ran a grist mill 'til mechanization made that job obsolete. I have fond memories of growing up in a bucolic forest setting in the UP, watching bears, moose, and bobcats, and also listening to dulcimer and fiddle music, while learning their folk traditions. We also lived on a tiny lake in a small mid-state farming community called Delton.
When I was an adolescent, I returned to Kalamazoo, a fairly large college town, where my parents had bought a home in a bourgeois neighborhood. It was a huge adjustment. As a youngster who'd run wild in the woods for years, and talked like a redneck, who was also handicapped (serious visual impairment and a congenital deformity that affects my walking gait) I was not accepted by the other kids in that location. Being "witchy" only made me more of a pariah.
Consequently, I totally went off the rails. I tried every legal and illegal mind-altering substance, was promiscuous, became an armed enforcer against people who owed money to drug dealers, and associated with unsavory characters who had ties to disorganized crime. I chose the Thug Life... and yes, it was totally a choice. A bad, stupid choice. And I own that.
At age 14, I met David Aldag, the man who became my husband, life partner, and best friend. We both attended Loy Norrix HS in Kalamazoo, where I graduated when I was 16. Dave and I were romantically involved by the time I was age 15 and married legally at age 19. Dave was /is from a much more educated and higher socioeconomic class than me. He has also had shamanic training.
We moved into a sketchy neighborhood in 1983. After some scary near-misses by criminal types, including a violent home invasion by addicts seeking drugs, we decided to straighten ourselves out and return to the nature religion of my ancestors and the shamanic tradition Dave had studied. I quit using all illegal substances "cold turkey" -- yes that is possible, and not that difficult, really -- stopped associating with thugs, and we both got real jobs, and went to college. Magick really helped in that process.
We met many neo-Pagans around 1985 and learned about Wicca, Asatru, and Druidry. However, we declined any initiations and refused to join any covens. Dave volunteered to serve in the US Army to "give back", and to have steady employment. He fought to make the military put "Wiccan" on his dog tags, one of the first soldiers to have that distinction.
We also tried the communal family / polyamory thing, which works if all partners are honest and are functional together. Unfortunately, ours weren't. Yet as a result, we have a wonderful, creative offspring, Rhiannon, born in 1987.
After serving in the Persian Gulf War, Dave was honorably discharged and got jobs in trucking and the postal service. We taught neo-Paganism as well as our ancestral traditions. To make up for past thuggin', we became "pillars of the community" and joined many civic organizations as well as neo-Pagan groups. And we had lots of fun, too!
We moved from our crappy inner-city neighborhood to a small farming community near beautiful Lake MI in 1995. There, we could practice nature spirituality in a natural environment, surrounded by deer, wild turkeys, coyotes, songbirds, and other wildlife -- even a badger. We can have bonfires and drum circles in our backyard. Our garden is huge. Together, we restored our 1911 Sears-kit farmhouse. Our son Brandyn was born at home in 1996. We continued to teach the Cymric (Welsh) folk magick tradition, based on the earth spirituality of my family, as well as shamanic ways and neo-Paganism.
During these years, we helped put on several Pagan Pride events, co-sponsored the Pan Pagan festival, hosted many holiday celebrations, and founded two legal Pagan churches (one was the second ever incorporated Pagan religious organization in MI, the other the first Pagan non-profit in our state). We also were part of many local charities and community activities. We fought our township for the right to religious assembly and won, setting a precedent for first amendment rights nationwide. We also joined the quest to have Pagan religious emblems put on veterans' tombstones. We demanded that Scouting accept Pagan kids, as well as taught public schools about 1st Amendment religious rights. Our family was very openly Pagan in our small town, doing hand-fastings, child blessings, kids' activities, holiday celebrations and folkplays. We both worked hard. And we still had lots of fun!
Unfortunately, Dave discovered he had Gulf War Syndrome, caused by airborne toxins, which resulted in over 15 years of fighting for recognition from the government, painful medical testing, grueling treatments, lost time at work, and serious physical problems. And devastating poverty, as all those tests were terribly expensive, coupled with lost work days. The VA refused to pay their share, until Dave won his claim. These events put us both in a very dark place. I was quite embittered that veterans have such difficulty attaining their contractually-obligated compensation, and medical treatment, for conditions caused by honorable military service.
This struggle led me to embrace fiscal conservatism and veterans' rights, and to become politically active. We joined veterans' organizations and I fought for the rights of disabled people in education, employment, and in society. I also fight for individuals' responsibilities. If I can accomplish stuff -- with my background, past bad choices, and physical handicaps -- then so can anyone else!
As a result of my (loud, strident) calls for fiscal and social responsibility, a few disgruntled people came out of the woodwork to denounce me. One of their accusations was that my folk religion was made-up. Another dig was at my lack of a college degree. In response, I began to research British Isles folklore, magick, Witchcraft, Celtic and Saxon legends, and surviving folkways, and compared them to my own heritage of nature spirituality. The naysayers actually did me a favor, motivating me to find hundreds of traditional European folkways. I discovered that Wiccan founder Gerald Gardner had written about some genuinely older Witchcraft and folk magick practices, as did Cecil Williamson & Roy Bowers / Robert Cochrane. I wrote the series "Another Pagan History: what's really old, and what likely ain't" for Witchvox in 2006. It got over 7,000 hits in its first month online. (It's on this website, on the page called "Works".) I also wrote articles for Llewellyn Worldwide, BBI Media, and Circle Magazine.
When I was in my late 40s, I reconnected with one of the "criminal masterminds" I'd known from my years as a teenage thug. In prison, he practiced a form of shamanism, and was deeply involved in the ecology movement as a way to redeem himself. Yep, the rumors are true. I do not regret talking with him during his last years alive. And no, I did not fall back into thuggery... I am still responsible and boring. It gives people something to gossip about, though.
In 2010, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Although I had surgery, I refused further treatment. No chemo. No radiation. No conventional Western medicines. Instead, I chose natural remedies and magick. Although I cannot recommend this solution for everyone, I have been cancer-free for 14 years... beating a disease that has an average survival rate of 3 to 5 years. Magick really works!*
*The test to measure a presence of cancer, called a Cancer Antigen test, or CA-125, measured me as having 416 U/mL. Normal is <35 U/mL. Yes, I really had cancer. Yes, it really went away.
Purely out of spite, I finished my degree at Western Michigan University in 2017 at 54 years of age, just so I could claim to be as edu-ma-cated as my detractors. It was almost worth the $30 grand in student loan debt, LOL. I squander my education by writing a Facebook site about news and events in our tiny, underserved rural community, called "Bangor Apple Press". But it's fun.
Rhiannon and Brandyn grew up, married nice people, and got on with their lives. Rhiannon drew many of the lovely illustrations on this site. Brandyn is now heading our legal Pagan organization, Caer n'Donia y Llew**
**This is old Welsh / Cymraeg for "House of the Goddess and God" whose names are Donia & Llew. If you just type it into a translator, it comes up as something like "fortress of the endowed lion". Caer = castle, royal house, fort, hill. Llew = the lion with long hands = the Sun. Donia = the endowed one = the Earth, which likely came from the old Brythonic word for a female deity: Deuina. Grammatically correct it is "Caer o Donia a Llew".
Anyway. Dave is still in pretty good shape, all things considered. Partly as a result of my constant harping, as well as complaints from thousands of other vets and their families, our government began spending more time and money on researching Gulf War Syndrome. The VA has streamlined the process for appealing compensation claims. I had a tiny miniscule part in that, but it was utterly fulfilling.
In 2017, I began writing "Common Magick" to pass on the legacy of folk religion, nature spirituality, and British folkways. I researched the topic from older books, museums, and tourist pamphlets, then compared this information to my own tradition. Fascinating stuff! Currently, I am working on "Common Part Two". I've found reverence for horned entities that existed in Britain prior to the Roman incursions, surviving rites of earth religions that are similar to my own, unique folktales and stories, "hex foils" or "witches' marks" all over the place, many versions of the "stag hunt" folkplay worldwide, and spells and divination methods that really work.
I've also written several works of fiction about Celtic people who actually use the old-world folk magick. These traditions make me very happy, so I hope readers have the same experience.
Publications
Common Magick from Llewellyn Worldwide
Witches & Pagans # 38 & # 39 from BBI Llewellyn's Witches' Companion 2022, 2023 & 2034 from Llewellyn Worldwide Llewellyn's Spell-a-Day Almanac, 2025 from Llewellyn Worldwide |
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