Louise O'Neill: What would you do if you were not afraid?

To have an unfulfilled desire feels safer than to try your best and for things not to work out the way you had hoped

Louise O'Neill. Picture: Moya Nolan

Every morning, before I start work, I pull a tarot card. I am not unique in doing this — I know plenty of millennial women who read the tarot, women who have oracle cards and crystals and sage stashed in bedroom lockers and desk drawers.

Somewhere private. Somewhere they can be alone. A moment of the day they take just for themselves. So yes, every morning I sit in silence and I ask the universe to tell me what it is I need to know. One card has turned up again and again in recent weeks, so frequently it is impossible to ignore. The Eight of Swords.