We asked Las Vegas psychics what the future will bring in 2017 — VIDEO

Only a few short hours to go, and then it’s happy good riddance to 2016 and a hearty welcome to 2017.

Maybe. Because remember, 2016 — the year that so many of us can’t wait to get rid of — started off with all sorts of promise, too, before degenerating into a parody of a really bad reality TV show.

The bizarre presidential election. Too many beloved actors, singers and celebrities passing away. Wars, disasters, scary clowns. It just went on and on and on.

All of that makes many of us feel a bit uneasy about the dawn of a new year. But figuring that forewarned is forearmed, we asked several Southern Nevada psychics what they see ahead for us in 2017.

And if some of their predictions seem a bit outlandish, just remember: Who would have predicted last year at this time that we’d be uttering the words “President Trump” without irony?

THE VIBE

First, the good news: 2017 is poised to be a time of change for the better, according to Mona Van Joseph, a longtime Las Vegas “professional intuitive” who’s probably better known by her professional name, Mystic Mona.

Van Joseph (www.mona.vegas) has been hosting her radio program here since 2003 — she currently can be heard on internet radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/psychicview — and says that she lately has been giving “little rituals to people to kind of let them prepare for a new beginning.”

In numerology — yes, there’s math — the digits of 2016 add up to a nine. “Nine is a completion year. It’s an ending year,” Van Joseph says. “It’s the ending of an era.”

“Now, add 2017 and it equals a 10. In numerology, you drop the zero, so it’s a one year, a new year, beginning a year of people more self-aware and self-promoting, and I don’t mean that in an obnoxious way. You can realize your true self and your true identity.”

2016 was a year to “get rid of what you do not want,” Van Joseph says. And, “because nature abhors a vacuum, when you create space, you create the energy for new things to come.”

Her advice: Clear out the old, and get ready for the new. And, she adds, be “a little bit more aware of what’s important and your destiny. You have the control, whatever happens moving forward.”

Cathy DiDomenico, who goes professionally by C.C. of C.C. Sees Your Guiding Light, 101 S. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 9, says energy in 2017 is “going to shift, and people are going to become a lot more positive, because the world has been such a negative place for so many years.”

Locq Fortune of A Fortune on Wheels (www.facebook.com/afortuneonwheels) sees us in for a bumpier ride. He sees 2017 starting off “fairly good in general in regard to where things are going. But we are looking at February being a month of challenge, and June and July is really when things get tricky.”

So, he says, January “is going to be an important month for (people) to make up their minds about what they are going to be doing and where they’re heading.”

POLITICS

On Jan. 20, Americans will know more about where we’re heading in 2017 as Donald Trump is inaugurated as president. Johnny Dee of Psychic Eye Book Shops — who goes professionally by Kestrel — sees challenging times ahead for the nation’s new chief executive.

Fortune agrees that Trump “has his work cut out for him. I see a major challenge to his office or position in office taking place in the month of February that he’s going to have to overcome.”

That challenge will be “really more philosophical and political,” Fortune says. “But in regard to policies he’s trying to implement, I’m looking at July being a very challenging month for him. July and possibly June as well.”

Also, Fortune says, “I honestly don’t see him filling his term as president. There are just a lot of things around him that are making him really excellent cannon fodder (to) either get himself impeached or having to resign.”

“I’m just looking at a national landscape that feels very uncomfortable, and it just looks like there’s a lot of unrest. It looks like there are a lot of fractured interests from many different angles that are vying for political dominance, which is going to make this a very confusing and interesting year to cover, especially during the first four months.”

On the upside, even amid such political discord, “after somewhere around April, people are starting to report they are getting meaningful jobs that actually would pay a meaningful wage,” Fortune says.

Meanwhile, Van Joseph says, “we have not heard the last of Hillary Clinton.”

“I think there are things we’re not privy to because we’re just the general public. But I think that you’ll see Hillary reinvent herself toward the end of 2017, and it will be — I don’t want to say a compromise, but I’m seeing that she does something that’s incredibly important to her.”

THE FAMOUSLY DEPARTED

2016 was a depressing year for celebrity deaths, with a roster of the dearly departed that includes Prince, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard, John Glenn, Florence Henderson, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and, within just the past week or so alone, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, George Michael and “Watership Down” author Richard Adams.

“I will tell you, if you look at history, the years that it seems there are more deaths than other years (are years that) add up to a nine,” Van Joseph says.

She expects that tide to turn a bit during 2017. Don’t misunderstand: Famous and beloved people will die, sometimes shockingly. But, she says, “you’re not going to see as many of the kick-you-in-the-gut deaths that we saw in 2016.”

Fortune isn’t so sure. “Celebrity deaths, I’m afraid those are going to keep going on,” he says.

“I’m not making a prediction in regards to who, but I do see that we get our first round of disappointment about celebrity death in the month of February. Then we get pretty hard hit again in regard to that particular topic in July and August and September. September, especially, will be difficult.”

AROUND THE WORLD

Dee offers a vision: “Caracas will crumble and the reds are routed.” So, he says, “I feel Venezuela is going to have something major.”

DiDomenico says she’s “been seeing a lot of fires and a lot of floods, which is already happening, but they keep showing me more,” although she sees nothing occurring in Las Vegas.

However, Fortune says he’s “really feeling some concern regarding California, and I’m concerned with California in the month of July. Between July and October, we’re really feeling concern with regard to California.”

“The other area of the world we’re also feeling some concern is with regard to India, and China also,” he says, that beginning around June 10 and continuing through Sept. 21.

“I’m not sensing a lot of military-type things going on this coming year,” Fortune says. “It doesn’t feel like anything major. The things that are already in place are staying in place, but we don’t see anything major blowing up. 2018 will be the year for that.”

SPORTS

Fortune foresees “some difficulty” for Las Vegas’ new National Hockey League team this year.

He suspects things will start to improve for the Vegas Golden Knights beginning in October, with “all the rough edges being ironed out” relating to contention over the team’s name.

Fortune sees the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys playing in the Super Bowl and says that if Dallas wins, the Raiders have a better chance of moving to Las Vegas. If the Raiders win, he says, “they likely will be staying in California.”

Van Joseph says she doesn’t predict sports, but she does see the upcoming Super Bowl as hosting “two surprise teams.”

ENTERTAINMENT AND POP CULTURE

Fortune foresees Bill Cosby’s legal troubles over multiple allegations of sexual assault continuing. But he doesn’t see a conviction or resolution this year. “If anything does happen, which I’m not saying is likely, but if it does happen, it will be September of this year.

Meanwhile, while he’s not quite sure of what it is, Fortune expects a new fad — think last year’s “Pokemon Go” — to emerge out of left field around August.

LAS VEGAS

Van Joseph sees good things in general for Las Vegas in 2017.

“In 2017 we are going to have more visitors than we’ve ever had,” she says, and the valley will have “more jobs than we know what to do with in 2017.”

Fortune agrees that “we feel pretty good about Las Vegas and how the valley itself is going to fare well,” adding that “really positive” news will come in February that will “change Las Vegas’ landscape.”

“This news is not going to be immediately acted on,” he says, and its announcement in February will be revisited in April.

“That really looks like something that’s going to possibly be impacting the local economy and that resonates with people,” he says. “I hate to use the words, but it will actually trickle down to the masses later on this year.”

What is it? Fortune isn’t sure, but, he says, “this could very well have to do with the marijuana movement.”

Read more from John Przybys at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com and follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.