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power of the bodies, ” which sway their souls away from uniformity and circularity to the
elliptical orbits he discovered.^84 These deviations are the very signs of life by which the
planetary image reflects its cosmic creator.
As in Kepler ’ s sexual imagery, this complex motion is not a flaw but the central beauty
of the design, imaging divine potency in cosmic intercourse, in cadence postponed, and
in the endless ebb and flow of human desire. For Kepler, the cosmic music is an ongoing
cadence that never ceases, “ finite and yet similar to the infinite, ”^85 signing the finite cosmos
with the hidden signature of the infinite.