The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe

by Arthur Koestler

force of the deity radiated from the centre of the world outward, until Aristotle banished the First Mover to the periphery of the universe. In the Copernican system, the sun again occupied the place of the Pythagorean Central Fire, but God remained outside, and the sun had neither divine attributes, nor any physical influence on the motions of the planets. In Kepler’s universe, all mystic attributes and physical powers are centralized in the sun, and the First Mover is returned to the focal position where he belongs. The visible universe is the symbol and ‘signature’ of the Holy Trinity: the sun represents the Father, the sphere of the fixed stars the Son, the invisible forces which, emanating from the Father, act through interstellar space, represent the Holy Ghost: The sun in the middle of the moving stars, himself at rest and yet the source of motion, carries the image of God the Father and Creator … He distributes his motive force through a medium which contains the moving bodies even as the Father creates through the Holy Ghost.