Born and raised in Winston-Salem/Clemmons, NC. Lived and studied in Paris and Dijon for a year and a half before graduating from Wake Forest. It was at Wake I had the honor of studying under and being mentored by Germaine Bree. Amazing woman and scholar. When I was living in Paris, I was able to track down a copy of the first ten treatises of Jabir's "Book of Sixty-Nine Treatises". Finally it seemed, studying French was paying off. No English translation of Jabir's work existed. I could read antiquity's greatest alchemist in his own words. When Jonas' shadow splits off and begins to both comfort and mock him it was, as Carl Jung speaks of in "Psychology and Alchemy," the conscious and unconscious attempting to find balance. Of course, a few random events, a couple of love interest and the ever-present vulture flying overhead, helped out.