Florence

We gather in limbo—the Piazza del Limbo to be exact—outside of the Hotel Berchielli, one of two hotels where our group is staying. Right next door is the Church of Santi Apostoli, a small Romanesque church, one of the oldest in Florence, dating back to the 11th century (and some people say it dates even further back to Charlemagne in the 800s). Michelangelo was involved in preserving the church when there were plans to rebuild it in the Renaissance style, and he visited there. The Piazza del Limbo gets its name from the fact that it’s built on top of what used to be a cemetery for babies and children who died before being baptized—so it was named “Limbo.”

The priest there gives us a short talk on the history of the church while standing in the doorway, and John gets permission from him to go inside and do a prayer. We fill the pews, John gives a mini-seminar, and we do some ani-hu’s that resonate throughout through the building. We fill the place (and probably all the churches of Italy, and probably all of Limbo, through the harmonic resonance). When we finish, a couple who “just happened” to be in the church at the same time as our gathering ask to meet John, and they get a bit of what you might call a spiritual boost in the courtyard, which you can see in the photos.

Then we split up into groups to visit the Church of Santa Croce, burial place of Michelangelo, Galileo and many Italian luminaries, finally arriving at the Galleria dell’Academia, home of Michelangelo’s David, his “Prisoner” sculptures and the unfinished Pieta and St. Matthew, as well as some fine Florentine medieval and Renaissance painting.

I did almost-cry this time when I saw David, as I described in an earlier blog, in which I said that I found myself getting progressively dryer-eyed as I revisited David repeatedly over my lifetime, and in our second September in a row visiting Italy. (It’s kind of like groundhog day. If I don’t cry it means we’ll be coming back again.) My eyes welled up and I felt a trembling through my chest that happens every time I visit this masterpiece.

I’m so moved by David because he so accurately represents the human condition that we all share. He stands naked confronting the giant (the negative power). We are all born naked into these fragile bodies in enemy territory, the kingdom of the negative power, and how we face the giant is our revelation, our learning, our fate and our challenge.

In earlier times there was a collective approach for how to deal with our great confrontation with duality—though tribes, churches, theologies, governments, etc. In the Renaissance our challenge became individual as we were released from the crutches of collectivity and given a more direct connection with Soul. The release has liberated huge power on the earth; grander, more urgent choices; brilliant technology and great wealth; and the opportunity for tremendous spiritual advancement. The changes that came out of this time enabled humanity to create a country where someone as high as John-Roger could be born and complete a full lifetime in a human body without being killed by the giant, and humanity could progress much faster in its journey into the Light. And as I write this, it’s J-R’s birthday. Happy birthday J-R.

To me, the David is a visible lesson in how to deal with the dilemma of being human. He’s full of energy, focused and vigilant but also relaxed, aware of his challenge but filled with confidence that he can deal with the monumental task. With just a few small stones—his abilities, the lessons learned from challenges in all of his lives, his unembellished will, his naked awareness that perceives clearly but without certainty—he defeats the giant. These disparate abilities and experiences that comprise personal will are leveraged into divine will by the sling, the power of the Soul.

David is the model for all the billions of embodied human heroes who overcome the negative power both within and without. I cry because I see in David the personification of my entire history as a human being on the earth and what I can become, all my failures and successes, and my way to victory in the battle of being human: faith in both myself and in God, which I can feel to be one and the same through the trust that’s chiseled into David’s face and the harmonized beauty of his God-created body that reflects the harmony of the cosmos.

As I walk out of the Accademia into the packed streets, I face my own little challenge, which is a recurrent fear of poverty, and buy an expensive (for me) leather jacket that I admired earlier in a nearby store, making the decision confidently in a few minutes and walking back to my hotel through the crowd of my fellow Davids.

View the Photos by David Sand from Day 6 of the Travelers Through the Ages Tour, Italy 2025