therefore seen as indications of dissatisfaction or disturbance of the god that planet represented. Such indications were met with attempts to appease the god and find manageable ways by which the god's expression could be realised without significant harm to the king and his nation. An astronomical report to the king Esarhaddon concerning the lunar eclipse of 18 January 672 BC shows how the ritualistic use of substitute kings, or substitute events, combined an unquestioning belief in magic and omens with a purely mechanical view that the astrological event must have some kind of correlate within the natural world: Ulla Koch-Westenholz, in her 1995 book Mesopotamian Astrology, argues that this ambivalence between a theistic and mechanic worldview defines the Babylonian concept of celestial divination as one which, despite its heavy reliance on magic, remains free of implications of targeted punishment with the purpose of revenge, and so "shares some of the defining traits of modern science: it is objective and value-free, it operates according to known rules, and its data are considered universally valid and can be looked up in written tabulations". Koch-Westenholz also establishes the most important distinction between ancient Babylonian astrology and other divinatory disciplines as being that the former was originally exclusively mundane, being geographically oriented and specifically applied to countries cities and nations, and almost wholly concerned with the welfare of the state and the king as the governing head of the nation. Planets and gods The Patron God of Babylon was Marduk, and this god was recognized in Babylonian astrology as the planet Jupiter. Marduk was recognized as the most powerful god, but not the one and only god. The Babylonians were polytheistic, believing in many gods with different purposes, and they associated certain gods to certain planets. The Babylonians used horoscopic astrology. By observing the seasonal movement of the sun, moon, and planets, the Babylonians connected their beliefs of divine intervention in their everyday life to space and time. They would forecast their future circumstances by observing space through time and relating ominous events, such as a lunar eclipses, to social, political, and environmental problems in aspects of their everyday lives, such as giving birth to deformed children. The Babylonians believed their gods' activities influenced their own lives. These celestial events were viewed by the Babylonians as divine intervention in their lives using the influence the sun, moon, and planets, and to communicate when