In the Middle Ages the stars were seen as quasi-supernatural. I came across this view from that period from reading Aquinas actually, and he was not the only one to believe it. Astrology seems to be at least, if not more, important in those times as astronomy. The only things closer in substance to God then the heavenly bodies within nature were human souls for Medieval Catholics. Descartes's famous "metaphysical turn" in 1629 was a turning point in this regard, and Galileo at the same year was arguing with Aristotelians over whether heavenly bodies has supernatural "forms". The shift came largely with Descartes's vortex, which was latter replaced by Newton with the word Aether. Nowadays we call this spacetime, and time itself is now being seen as most fundamental by physicists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKxQTvqcpSg

So it seems that time is the new Prime Mover in modern thought, and that this has replaced the old thought of heavenly bodies ("gods") revolving by the will of God. It certainly is a new aesthetic. Anyhow, comments?