Generally, a seer or diviner, a person who foretells the future from omens; one possessing higher faculties of knowing and seeing the unknown, the secret and the unseen.
Specifically, an ancient soothsayer whose chief occupation was Ariolatio, divining by means of altars. The term is said to be from the Latin ara, for 'altar', but some occultists trace its origin to the Sanskrit hira, for 'entrails'.
It was said that Ariolists consulted demons on their altars and that they observed whether the altar trembled, moved or performed any other marvel, thus predicting by what the Devil inspired them with. François de la Tour Blanche declared that these Ariolists ought to have been put to death as idolators, basing his bloodthirsty remarks on Deuteronomy 18 and Revelation 21, where it is said that idolators and liars shall be cast into the lake of fire and sulfur, which will be their 'second' death. Deuteronomy orders only the first.
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