Celebrity Psychic Tarot Readings For 2017: Kanye West, Britney Spears & More

We're just hours away from the New Year and a clean slate almost feels necessary, at this point. From an unavoidable wave of celebrity deaths to the media circus surrounding the bid for the White House, 2016 has turned into a roller coaster ride with just one too many twists, and we're ready to hop off. Insert the tired emoji. 

As we prepare for 2017, it's hard not to anticipate, or at least hope, for better times. Can a divided America somehow find a way to heal after the ugly election? Will Harry Styles make a splashing debut as a solo artist? Can Brangelina be a thing again? We're not entirely sure, but what we do know is we're interested in what the future brings, so much that we turned to the practice of tarot card reading and met with self-proclaimed folk witch and Catland bookstore co-owner Melissa Madara at her home in Queens, New York. During our visit, we were greeted with hot tea and playful cats, but what we were mostly interested in was her intuitive insight on what 2017 has in store for some of our favorites.

For Madara, who previously worked in the culinary industry, our e-mail inquiry wasn't surprising, or even out of the ordinary. You see, she was born and raised in the Empire State in a culture of fortune telling, witchcraft and psychic ability, with her mother reading cards as early as she can recall. 

"The first time I ever saw her do it was in my kitchen for one of our neighbors Pam, who lived next door. My mom's a Pisces, which means that it's just feelings, all the way down," she told iHeartRadio. "She gave what was not an incredibly pleasant reading to Pam and then immediately had to put the cards away and was miserable the rest of the day."

It served as the spiritual foundation for what Madara would go on to build after residing in New Orleans and India, before returning back to New York City. "I think the limit on how much you can use your deck is not so much about your relationship with the deck, but it is with your emotional energy level or your spiritual energy level," she said of the practice. 

When asked about her first deck, we didn't have to look very far. "I think my first deck I bought for myself was maybe this one, the one that I still read with," she said motioning towards the Aquarian Tarot on her living room table. "Every witch goes through a period of their life where they're collecting decks. I found one that I like and stuck with it."

With her go-to deck and burning candles by her side, Melissa welcomed us to her couches to hone in on a number of your favorites. We focused on various themes on each of the artists' lives and what that meant for 2017. So, without further ado, here are some celebrity predictions for the New Year.

Kanye West: Mental Health

"We have the Nine of Cups reversed. We have Judgment upright, and we have the Seven of Pentacles reversed. This does speak to instability, but not in the way that you think. This is definitely a time of reckoning, as evidenced by Judgment, who always calls us to be who we really are instead of who we are in our shadow selves. 

Starting from the beginning of the sentence here, the Nine of Cups reversed tells me that there's emotional things that are repressed or hidden, that are deliberately kept from other people. It can almost manifest as wearing a mask constantly. Because we have it reversed, I think it's not a very good mask anymore. I think it's one that people are having an easy time seeing through. I think that's calling him to really be who he is in front of other people instead of who he presents himself as. The Seven of Pentacles, when it's upright, it speaks to a growing of investments and a productivity, but we have it in reverse. That means that it's a bit stalled. That infers that right now, what we need to be focusing on is not so much the getting better as it is the taking a break. The breath between an inhale and an exhale. 

My recommendation here for Kanye's mental health is to acknowledge that people have had an idea of him that's not accurately who he is, and that he needs to now be who he actually is in front of other people. What's most important for that healing process right now is to just take a breather, sort that out internally, before trying to go out and approach the world. If not, it's gonna get a little jumbled, and it's still gonna be that mix of fake and real."

Britney Spears: Potential

"This is not unworkable, but it's not the best. We have all reversed cards. We have the Devil reversed. We have the Ten of Cups reversed, and we have the Fool reversed. The Fool reversed is the thing I'm gonna start with. First of all, we do have two majors and one minor, which means we're talking about larger life currents here. Asking about potential for where she is right now for the future is kind of a limited perspective. I think we need to take her whole career into perspective to see what potential she has now.

Beginning at the end here with the Fool reversed, we need to be wary of false starts. At this point in Britney's career, there is no clean slate. Everything that she's done in her past, all of her former selves walk with her into her future. Unfortunately, cause of media and cause of being a star your whole life, there's no way to erase that. That circles back to this first card, the Devil reversed, which talks about your personal demons and your vices. Those are gonna follow you with how people think about you. They're gonna follow you in people's perception of you. Not that there's necessarily anything bad going on, but I think that there's just been a lot of conflicting versions of Britney that people have seen and dealt with. I think that it's hard to pinpoint a new construction of her and her identity. 

This middle card, Ten of Cups is usually the wish card. It's like the happy ending card. It's inverted. I'm not gonna say that that means that there's no happy ending here cause that's not true. It just means that we can't go back and recreate Britney. Britney is always gonna be an amalgamation of who she has been. If what she's trying to do with this whole new album is to create a whole new face, that's not gonna happen. But that's not unworkable. Because we have these two majors here, that tells me that that's a life current that I think that she's aware of, and that we need to accept about her. It's also a very beautiful thing, but all of her past is going to definitely be carried with her into the future."

The Chainsmokers: Lifestyle 

"They're gonna have a hard time adjusting to fame, not in a way that's impossible to do. We've got two minors, one major, and the major's upright. That always says things are going to be okay, no matter what, especially punctuating the sentence right here. This is one of the least fun major cards, the Hierophant, which is having to listen to people with experience and having to learn from your mistakes, which is not something anyone wants to hear when they're famous and having fun. I think that there's gonna be a couple hiccups. I think that the first hiccup, if they were getting this reading I would want them to know, is money management and finance management. That's gonna be tough. There's gonna be more pentacles, or stability, than they know what to do with, and that that's going to be an issue.

The Six of Swords has to do with, when it's upright, a right of passage or a journey that we're not quite ready to take, that we do anyway. When it's inverted, it has a similar meaning, but I don't think that the participants, or that the people on the boat are aware that they're not ready to take this journey. In this card, there's no people on the boat, just swords. There's a gentleman, though. In the Rider-Waite, there's two people in the boat. I think when it's inverted, that's what it's saying. We've gotten into a bit of deep water. Not a bad thing. I think that towards the end of the year, they're probably gonna be like, 'Okay, we learned a lot, and now we know how to do things.' It's just speaking to some hiccups and to being in a little bit of deeper water than you were expecting."

Kesha: Recovery

"Let's talk Kesha. Oh, girl. Oh, girl. Okay. Let's give her a couple more cards 'cause I like her. We're starting with the stunting of creative energy. We're starting with a stalling of the wheel. She's very much in that place where nothing is moving. In a total standstill. I think that because we have two major cards representing that, I don't think that's going anywhere anytime soon. I think that we're moving into a place of acceptance and that's just gonna be the nature of what it is for right now. We do have the Ten of Swords over here, which is everyone's least favorite minor card, if you can't tell.

The nature of the Ten of Swords is, as if one sword wasn't bad enough, you've got ten. This isn't a very realistic scenario, and I think that's pretty obvious. The nature of the Ten of Swords is that it's pain, but it's over dramatic pain. It's pain that's blown out of proportion. It's pain that doesn't need to be as painful as it is. It's pain that hasn't met acceptance yet. Have you ever been in a hectic situation where you just lose something very quickly, and then there's that tragedy moment, where you're like, 'How could this happen?' You go through the five stages of grief in one minute. That's the Ten of Swords. It's followed by acceptance and peace, but it's not quite there yet. Here's where she's at right now. A complete standstill and kind of an over dramatic suffering.

Intuitively, what's coming to me through this card is that it's the nature of all of her fans and the media participates in her suffering. We've got plenty of people who have written articles and go to her shows about standing up for Kesha against everything that's going on in her life. In a way, it helps and hurts. It creates solidarity, but it also amplifies the tragedy that's occurred. It's that double edged sword, or ten. But these two are much more hopeful. We have the Ace of Pentacles, which is ultimate stability. I do think that there's resolution on the horizon. I don't think that it's now. It's probably within the next year. It's also financial stability, and I know that that's been an issue for her. That's going to be coming back to her, which is a wonderful and beautiful thing.

We also have the King of Swords. I just looked down at it and my brain did a stupid trick where I read it as 'King of Survivors.' It's the ability to stand strong within your capacity to protect yourself, and your ability to face whatever's coming toward you. These two are brilliant for her recovery. I think that she's gonna come out of the other side of this a really remarkable woman, and someone who is as alluring and powerful as she is formidable. I think that it's going to really show that the people who have crossed her have severely underestimated her, which is a remarkable thing. I think that she just needs to get out of this Ten of Swords phase, which, speaking as another survivor, will take its time."

Justin Bieber: Fulfillment

"I think that one of the luxuries that he has, for one reason or another, as opposed to Britney's reading, is that he is able to leave former selves behind. He is strong enough and stable enough, and he hasn't gone too far along in his career where those mistakes are irreversible. They're completely reversible at this point. He's someone who, if he wanted to change how people view him and change what his brand stands for, he's able to do that. He's a dog who's young enough to learn new tricks.

The biggest piece of advice that I have for him though, as evidenced by this Three of Pentacles reversed, is to listen to what people tell him to do, is to not be so headstrong and so independently minded, which is a wonderful quality for an artist, but is something that you do eventually need to grow out of. Deciding that you're gonna do whatever you're gonna do, regardless of what people say, is toxic. That's been one of the more toxic things about him. The Three of Pentacles says that we need teamwork. We need collaboration, and we need to listen to other people and learn before we act. That's something that I think he's going to come into on his own, if he ever wants to leave unstable projections of his personality behind."

Beyoncé: Social Responsibility

"Three major Arcana cards. I'm gonna stop there, cause that's pretty power packed. Oh, boy. Look, being a focal point for activism right now is not easy. Everyone has an opinion. America is supremely divided, and I think she's catching a lot of flack for her extremist points of view. I think she's an incredible, intersectional feminist and she's just a wonderful human being. Starting from the end again, I think that she represents a beacon of hope for a lot of people and just a beacon of social responsibility. That can also be an incredibly hard burden to carry. It's something that requires constant checking in and constant reflection, which can sometimes be tough, especially when you've said things and you can't take them back. If she does stick her foot in her mouth at all this year, that's gonna be the reason why.

She's someone who needs to stay very in touch with her shadow side and making sure that there are no secrets that anyone could find out, cause God forbid they do, everything comes crumbling down. I don't think that's in the cards for her, but I do think it's something that she needs to monitor very well. There's a lot of people who would like to see the destruction of Beyoncé. I don't think that's gonna happen for her, cause the Star is a very hopeful card. It's the more peaceful and hopeful card in the entire deck.

I think, this year, she's gonna find a lot of people who want to combat her in that social justice realm. That's gonna be a struggle for this year. But again, as long as she makes sure there are no skeletons in her closet that she can drag out, she's gonna be fine. That's always a threat, isn't it? Everyone says, 'If you have nothing to hide, you'll be fine.' Even if you have nothing to hide, you get nervous, just like you're nervous every single time you see a cop, for no reason. That's something that she's gonna probably carry with her into the New Year."

Harry Styles: New Beginnings

"I think that there is this nostalgic sadness that comes with the band ending. I think that there can sometimes be a little bit of loneliness with that and not really knowing where to go next. I think if he's not doing this right now, it should be a very important place of rest to figure out what the next move is. Just like Kanye needs to take a breather and make that next move smartly and deliberately, so does this one. The Six of Pentacles is the one that's more active than this rest. This one's literally just about resting and sleep like you're dead. The Six of Pentacles talks about really making sure that your accounts and everything are in order and making the right moves for what you want.

I think that now that he's not part of a group identity, deciding what his personal goals are is gonna be the theme for the New Year, and calculating how best to reach those goals. His personal goals might actually surprise us in the New Year. We might find out he has a personality outside of One Direction, not that he hasn't shown us that, but that he's a separate entity. I think he's gonna really come into his own, as his own person, for the first time in a long time. That calls for a lot of accounting, like being an actual accountant."

Mariah Carey: Legacy

"Our only upright card is our major. It's a beautiful card for Mariah Carey. It's the Empress, which is the ultimate beacon of feminine luxury. It's also kind of a mom figure. She's been around for awhile. She's someone that people respect. I also don't think that she's ever had any scandals. She's someone that people really see as a strong, pure figure, whatever that means. As far as legacy goes ... Just like Britney, there are no new beginnings. I think that her time as a person who creates new content is probably coming to a close, but I don't think that her position in the entertainment world is ever going to fade out. She's gonna be someone that we always have, like Madonna. After Madonna stops making music, she's still gonna always be Madonna and we're still gonna love seeing her face every time. She's established herself as that strong, feminine figure that isn't gonna go anywhere for us.

The Queen of Pentacles reversed is kind of the outlier. That speaks to that stable, feminine energy, and this is sort of a minor version of it, but it is inverted, which tells me that there might be some insecurity there, within herself, about the future. If she should make a next move, when the next move should be, just lots of questions that make her kind of anxious right now. I think that if she just accepts that she's wonderful and she's done a lot for everyone and that she's a well respected figure, there's not too much to be anxious about."

Fifth Harmony: Recovery

"I think that while it can feel unfair right now, it's ultimately in the best interest of the group. I think that it's hard work to replace someone, or to move on without someone, and to figure out new ways of doing things, and new ways of relating to one another. That's the difference, like I said, between having a plan, and having a fantasy. Plans have contingencies. I think that the group as a whole is equipped to deal with this, and to have contingencies, and to be flexible. I think that the thing to worry about with group attitudes toward what's going on, is like strength reversed intuitively, right now is coming to me as a tendency towards pettiness, and I think that as long as we can remain above it, and kind of respectfully agree to disagree, then there won't be an issue.

If there's any kind of bad blood, that's where that's coming from. It's coming from, 'You left, and I'm pissed, bleh.' Just kind of a very petty sense of betrayal. Coming to the Four of Cups, the Four of Cups speaks about kind of a blessing in disguise, something that, when you're looking at it, just seems like an inconvenience, but it's actually a positive thing for you. It's about overlooking blessings that come to you. What we have here, is there's a bunch of cups in front of this guy, who's kind of non pleased by them, and then the cloud is literally handing him another cup, and he's not even paying attention. He's just kind of 'meh' about the ones that he has. It's about trying to see a bigger perspective, and within the bigger perspective, this is actually a blessing.

As for Ms Camilla. I mean, it's going to be hard to build a career having left this project. I think that while she was riding that wave with everyone else, now she has no momentum, and if she wants to build that up on her own, it's gonna be very very tough. She's gonna have to make a lot of decisions for herself, and really take that power if she wants it, or take that fame, and take that popularity if she wants. She's gonna have to do a lot more work than she would've had to, if she had just stuck with the project. Again, that was her decision, it wasn't what she thought she wanted, and she made it for herself, so if she wants that level of popularity and fame back, she's gonna have to work for it on her own, but she knew that when she made that decision."

If you want to schedule your own reading or learn more about Melissa's practice, make sure you check out her Gemini & Moon website and follow her on Instagram @geminiandmoon.

Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio