The Poet Prince (53 page)

In one of the many strange twists of fate in the history of the Medici family, Fioretta Gorini died of fever and blood loss in her bed on the same morning that Giuliano was murdered in the cathedral. Blessedly, she never knew about the massacre. Fioretta’s last communication from Giuliano was an excited message of love and hope, telling her that his family had consented to their union. She fell asleep shortly after receiving the correspondence, dreaming of the beautiful future she would have as Giuliano’s wife and the mother of Medici children. She never woke up from that dream.

Had Giuliano gone to Fiesole that morning, he would have arrived just in time to hold the hand of his beloved as she slipped away from him and returned to God.

Now they were together in heaven, taken on the same day.

Lorenzo de Medici adopted the baby, Giulio, with the permission and blessing of Fioretta’s family. For the rest of their days, the Gorini were treated as members of the Medici family and wanted for nothing. Baby Giulio was raised with Lorenzo’s favorite son, Giovanni, and the two boys became as close as twins. They played together, learned together, challenged each other. They finished each other’s sentences and spoke their own shorthand language. And like many sets of natural twins, they were opposite personality types: Giovanni was sunny
and sweet where Giulio was serious and sullen. Although Lorenzo al
ways treated Giulio with the same affection that he showered on his own children, the boy seemed to have an innate resentment for the world that had deprived him of his natural parents. It was often necessary for his half brother, whom he called Gio, to cheer him out of his moods.

The destinies of these two boys were as intertwined as if they had shared a womb.

The Church is a hybrid monster.

For centuries, it has been the tradition in art to depict the Church in such a way, most often as a minotaur, the creature who lived in the center of the labyrinth in Crete and devoured the innocent. For that describes the Church, does it not? A mysterious type of hybrid monster, half horrible and half redeemable; half based on truth and half based on lies. A hybrid of love and hate, good and greed. This monster lives at the center of an impenetrable fortress and feeds on the blood of the innocent.

I have painted my hybrid monster as a centaur. He is a wretched one, and stupid, as he represents Sixtus and the brood of hideous inbred creatures who would carry out a plot to butcher the innocent on Easter Sunday. He clings hopelessly to his weapon, as he knows it has already failed him. He is caught. The truth is known.

The centaur is being controlled easily by the hand of the great Pallas Athene, who represents the goddess of eternal wisdom. It is in this way that I assert she will triumph, for she represents the truth. I have clothed her in a gown that is made up entirely of Medici devices, Lorenzo’s interlocking wedding rings, while also draping her in laurel leaves. It is clear to any who have eyes to see that this wise and mighty goddess favors our Lorenzo. May it always be so. I create this painting as a talisman of protection for him and the entire Medici family.

I remain,
Alessandro di Filipepi, known as “Botticelli”

FROM THE SECRET MEMOIRS OF SANDRO BOTTICELLI

Florence
present day

“P
OPE SIXTUS IV
excommunicated Lorenzo shortly after murdering Giuliano in the cathedral.”

Destino was giving the lesson to all who were assembled in Petra’s living room that evening: Maureen and Peter, Roland and Tammy, and Petra.

“Excommunicated him for what reason?” Peter wanted to know.

“For surviving. Laugh, please, because it is ridiculous. But this is the truth. Sixtus was so outraged that Lorenzo had dared to survive his attempt to murder him that he excommunicated Lorenzo for the act of survival. And when the citizens of Florence would not acknowledge the act of anathema against il Magnifico, Sixtus excommunicated the entire Republic of Florence.”

“What?” This was said in a unison of disbelief.

Peter, the former priest who had once worked inside the Vatican, added, “You cannot excommunicate an entire city! And certainly not because of one citizen in that city!”

“Yes, I know it is absurd, but everything that pope did was rather unbelievable. And he always got away with it. Papal authority being what it was, and the pope being infallible, he could do whatever he wished, and so he did. You can understand why Lorenzo became
more and more fixated on the elimination of absolute papal authority while at the same time he was always seeking ways to destabilize the structure of the Catholic Church.”

“What happened?” Roland asked. “Did the citizens of Florence accept their excommunication?”

“Of course not. For Florentines, Sixtus was a criminal and therefore nothing he said or did held much weight with the average citizen.
The council in the Signoria sent a letter back to the pope, telling him that they would much rather follow Lorenzo than him, thank you very much. It was the ultimate affront! I wish I could have seen the face of Sixtus when he was faced with that letter.”

“The story of Giuliano and Fioretta is so sad,” Tammy said. “And yet, there is something poetic about their dying on the same day.”

“They were twinned souls, of course,” Petra said. “They left this world together, and I have no doubt that they were instantly reunited in heaven, to become as one again.”

Peter had been analyzing the material from the Libro Rosso on this idea of each soul having a twin. It fascinated him, confused him, and most of all, it disconcerted him.

“So are you saying that all people have soul mates? In reading the legends of Solomon and Sheba in the Libro Rosso, I see reference repeatedly to one’s ‘own soul’s twin.’ Are all souls twin souls?”

Petra looked at him for a long and careful moment, a slight smile on her lips. When she answered, it was with a softness that they had not yet seen from her. “Yes, Peter. All souls are twinned and perfectly mated. All of them. However, we do not incarnate together in every lifetime, depending on what the mission requires. Let us take Sandro Botticelli as a perfect example. Sandro was a singular character. He did not exist to find his soul mate, as he was singularly devoted to the mission. Sandro’s true love and authentic passion was creation, which is why he was so prolific. This was true for many of the greatest angelics: Donatello, Sandro, Michelangelo.

“Commitment to the love of another is a very specific task unto itself, and for some it is part of their mission—or even the mission itself. For others, it is a distraction. But the beauty of it all is that those who desire to find their soul mates do so because they have one to find. Those who have no interest do not because it isn’t their mission. Destino will tell you that Sandro was one of the most contented men he has ever known, and he was entirely alone. He liked it that way, because anything else interfered with his art.”

“So, I’m not entirely getting this. Sandro didn’t have a twin soul?
I thought everyone did.” This was Peter, still trying to stay with the concept.

“Angels are not so easily understood, are they?” Destino asked. “But this is true about many of the angelic ones. Everyone does, and therefore Sandro did, indeed, have a twin soul. But such a person was not alive during the Renaissance, as it was necessary for him to channel that love and passion solely into his art.”

“But,” Petra continued with emphasis, “and this is critical to understand, he did not feel that terrible sense of longing that one feels when one is searching for someone. This is because his twin soul chose to remain in the angelic realms and help him from above. He tapped into the energy of his other half each time he worked, and his mate was right there with him. This is why his output was so extraordinary—because he was in essence working as two people, one above and one below, to accomplish the miracle of the one thing! And this is also why he felt such ecstasy while painting, which led to his unequaled output. He experienced no longing or loneliness. That particular pain happens only when soul mates are incarnate at the same time and unable to reunite; then there is an increased desire to find each other.”

Peter watched her with fascination. She was mesmerizing: brilliant, intense, completely aware of herself and her surroundings. He wondered as he watched her,
Is she one of these angelics? Is she so committed to her mission that she has not allowed herself to know committed, human love?

Maureen was curious about this, thinking of various friends who were still alone and still unhappy. “So in other words, anyone who feels lonely is actually sensing that there is someone out there for them?”

“Precisely. God is all good all the time, Maureen. He would not allow us to incarnate in pain, feeling loneliness for a companion we can never find.”

Peter pointed to Roland and Tammy. “I can certainly believe that they were born to be together. But are they just fortunate? Are some more blessed than others? Am I to believe that everyone has the potential for their type of bliss?”

Petra took a deep breath and sat up very straight, preparing her answer. She was a natural teacher. Peter, who had been teaching for twenty years, recognized the gift in others.

“We are all meant to find our twin souls, just as we are all meant to achieve our highest destinies. But we don’t always do either, and the two are connected. Now, what I mean is this. It is useless to go out in deliberate search of your soul mate, because you will never find him or her in that way. There is only one way to find your twin soul, and that is to find yourself first.”

Petra continued the lesson. “I will tell you something about me personally. I have not experienced the blessing of divine love in this lifetime, and yet I have all faith that it awaits me. I know that by teaching the lessons of
hieros-gamos
and making it readily understandable for those who have found their beloveds, as well as those who have not, I create the path for my own soul’s twin to walk through the door. But had I stayed in the fashion industry, which was not my true calling, I likely would have remained alone or ended up with someone other than my truest mate.”

Peter considered this for a moment. It was all so new to him. Foreign, but also exciting. “Will you know him when you see him? Will it be love at first sight?”

“There is a veil over these things, Peter,” Destino answered the question. “Often one partner recognizes the other far earlier.”

As they were preparing to take their leave for the evening, Petra approached Tammy and asked, “May I place my hands on your abdomen? I want to see if I can feel the baby.”

“Sure,” Tammy said. “But it’s too early to feel anything yet.”

“It isn’t if you’re Petra,” Destino said.

Petra leaned over and placed her hands gently on Tammy’s abdomen, closing her eyes. Moving palms very gently, she paused, breathed deeply, and then moved again. She repeated this motion for another
minute before opening her eyes. She shook her head slightly, as if to clear it and return to the here and now.

Smiling warmly at Tammy, she said simply,
“Serafina.”

“Serafina?”

Petra nodded. “It is a girl. Did you know?”

Tammy shook her head and looked at Roland excitedly.

“I told you it was a girl!” he said.

“It is. A golden one. An angelic. She is of the seraphim, the shining angels who surround the throne of our mother and father in heaven. The word
seraphim
means ‘fiery one,’ which if you study your Libro Rosso, you will recognize as the original name of the Queen of Sheba. Makeda, the fiery one. For she was one of the seraphim come to life on earth, to change the world with the twin of her soul. Just as this child will do.”

“Are you telling me that my baby is the reincarnation of the Queen of Sheba?”

Petra laughed. “Something like that. A similar energy, anyway. In Italian, a female angel of this order is called a
serafina
and is a very blessed thing.”

“Serafina . . .” Tammy smiled back at Petra as her hands moved to her belly, and she burst into tears of joy.