The Hebrew verb anan (עָנַן) has two related senses: (1) to practice sorcery or observe omens, and (2) to bring or cover with clouds. In its occult sense, anan refers to a specific form of forbidden divination — interpreting natural signs as omens.
Anan in its divinatory sense is explicitly forbidden in the Torah (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10). The practitioner seeks to read divine will through created phenomena rather than through God's revealed word — a fundamental inversion of covenant epistemology. The very clouds that signify God's presence become objects of illicit interpretation when sought apart from His self-revelation.