Judaism, cont.
From what I can glean, the prohibition against divination fell into the area of witchcraft. Deuteronomy is quoted:
(Deuteronomy) 18:10-11 - "There shall not be found among you one who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire, one who practices divinations, an astrologer, one who reads omens, a sorcerer; or a charmer, one who inquires of Ov or Yidoni, or one who consults with the dead." (Heheh, that takes care of most of us here.)There are all sorts of stipulations, however. The stipulations are what fascinate me about Judaism.
For example, the general advice is to stay away from Astrology altogether, but .. it's okay to study astrology in order to examine one's past.
The philosophy seems to be that we need to turn away from our own nature and nature itself, in order to seek God. And all of these activities are seen as either our first nature (prakriti?) or as the wide panorama of earthly Nature (including star-gazing).
Interestingly, though, if one has been bitten by a snake, saying a "charm" to ward off the poison is acceptable
if one really believes that it will work. I got these bits of information from
this discussion and my own membership in torah.org.