Sunday was my birthday, so I did something different and had my Tarot cards read by famous San Francisco psychic Avis Marie Sander.

She had me shuffle the cards and pull three cards. I did not discuss my questions with her before the reading.

The first card represented my past. She gasped when she turned it over because it was the cruelty card.
She said that someone had been cruel to me in the past, and the pain from that cruelty had affected how I felt about myself, and it was holding me back.

The second card represented whatever action I need to take now. It was the death card.
By this time I'm thinking "I don't like these cards," but she reminded me that I picked them. She said the death card does not represent physical death, but death of a relationship, death of a way of life, death of a way of thinking, etc etc. She said the death card is actually a good card because it represents a clearing away of things that are holding us back. The death card represents transformation.

Finally, she turned over the third card, which represents my future. It was the queen of swords.
She said this card represents a cutting away of masks, of things that are holding us back. It's also a card of slaying our monsters. She holds the monster's severed head in her hand.

In a nutshell, she said I need to put the past behind and then the good stuff will find its way to me. She said she expects within 1-3 months of the reading, I'll be living a life that is completely different than what I live now.

Sounds like it will be a good year. That will be nice after the year I've had.