Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer, astrologer and mathematician, used as agent of the Science Church. He was educated at the University of Tübingen (place where Rosicrucian manifesto's would be published) by Jacob Heerbrandt, student of Protestants Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. He was taught the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus by his math teacher and mentor Michael Maestlin, a student of Philipp Apian (University of Ingolstadt), who also taught Galileo Galilei. In 1577 Maestlin and Tycho Brahe observed a comet that contradicted the geocentric theory. In 1597 jesuit trained Ferdinand II Habsburg banned all protestants from Graz and Kepler was temporarily banished. He grew up with a jesuit uncle. |
In 1596 he published The Cosmographic Mystery with illustration of a model of the Solar System based on Platonic solids (sacred geometry).
In 1600 Kepler became assistant of Tycho Brahe who worked for Bohemian king and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II Habsburg. Rudolf II employed rosicrucians Michael Maier and Robert Fludd, with who Kepler corresponded.
Brahe died a year later, after which Kepler could use his hidden data of observations. He developed 3 laws of planetary motion, describing the planetary orbits as ellipses (with particular 'eccentricities') instead of circles.
In 1617, at the start of the Thirty Years' War Kepler published his Epitome on Copernican Astronomy and Rudolf II and Wilhelm Rosenberg met with John Dee.
In 1627 he published the Rudolphine Tables, a star catalog that served as an update of the Prudentic Tables of Erasmus Reingold, based on the work of Copernicus.
Kepler's laws of planetary motion are:
1. The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the sun at one of the two foci.
2. A line segment joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit (constant relationship between orbit and radius, r³/T²=2nd r³/T²=Kepler's law).
He considered astrology as important as astronomy.
His theory influenced Isaac Newton (Royal Society), born 12 years after Kepler's death, to develop his theory of universal gravitation, F (force of gravity)= G (gravitational constant) m (mass of object 1) m2 (mass of object 2)/r² (distance between the objects squared).
Pythagoras, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton are all often depicted with masonic square and compass.
born 12/27/1571.
died 11/15/1630.