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Kepler, Johannes - An epiphany of the laws of the solar system
Identifier
003968
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Joscelyn Godwin – Music, mysticism and magic
Johannes Kepler, a man of stupendous genius, patience and spirituality, shows how the vision human beings have of their universe may be widened, corrected and made ever more wonderful, awe-inspiring, exalting and humbling through the alliance of mystical insight with objective observation.
When he was 24, he had an epiphany of the laws of the solar system as deriving from the five regular solids. Placed between the planetary spheres, these forms both determine the number of planets, confirming the heliocentric system of Copernicus and govern the distances between their orbits. Mysterium cosmographicum (The Cosmological Mystery 1596) was the result of this revelation of divine law, interpreted not only as a geometrical but also as a musical harmony, and Kepler was never to lose sight of it.