The History of Western Esotericism

In 652 BCE, we see the first of the astronomical diary texts. It strikes me that this may perhaps have been the world's first intelligence network - only they were spying not on enemy governments but on the gods themselves. The majority scholarly opinion is that the Babylonians developed astronomy in order to get better at astrology. That's astrology in the loose sense, given earlier. Why bother to spend an immense amount of time studying the stars unless by doing so you can get some practical results?