>Looking at the stars in the sky is not at all equivalent to Astrology.
>99% of people who practice astrology have never looked at the stars.

The word 'stars' has been used generically for a long time by poets,
writers, and astrologers.

There shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars.
Luke 21, 25

Book of Judges chapters 4, 5 and 6. It is made clear that the prophet
Deborah, like all biblical prophets, is an astrologer. Sisera rules
and
oppresses the tribes of Israel. Deborah receives a message from God to
raise
an army against Sisera, which verily she does. In chapter 6 is
Deborah's
song of victory.

19 The kings came and fought, they fought the kings of Canaan in
Taanach by
the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.
20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against
Sisera.

Daniel was chief among the astrologers and other forecasters, in
Babylon. He
was one of them by virtue of education, training, and association; he
was
the
best of them by virtue of his spirituality and the 'Lord's' blessings.
If
the
other 'wise men' were practicing abominable arts would Daniel have
asked
that
they not be killed (Dan. 2:18,24)? Would he still be blessed and
gifted if
he were doing so?

Any careful, responsible, reading of Isaiah (47:13-15) reveals he was
condemning the wickedness of Babylon, and predicting its destruction,
in
spite of the greatness of its astrology, rather than because of it.

For an example of 'God's' declaration of authorship of astrology: The
'Lord'
speaks to Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:12,13 New English), "In all
your
life have you ever called up the dawn or shown the morning its place?
Have
you taught it to grasp the fringes of the earth and shake the Dog-star
from
its place;" The Dog-star, Sirius, was Sopdet to the Egyptians; its
heliacal
rising was the cornerstone of their astro-calendar signaling the
eminent
flooding of the Nile.

'God' continues in verses 31-33, "Can you bind the cluster of the
Pleiades
or loose Orion's belt? Can you bring out the signs of the zodiac" (the
Mazzaroth) "in their season or guide Aldebaran and its train?"
(Aldebaran in
the brightest star in Taurus, the Bull that pulls or leads the zodiac
across
the sky.) "Do you proclaim the rules that govern the heavens, or
determine
the laws of nature on earth?" The RSV reads "Do you know the
ordinances of
the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?"

Siobhan (an astrologer with no ties to any organized religion, but a
holographic thinker)