Cuban warlocks' New Year prediction is improved U.S., Cuba relations

A line forms outside this Havana home in Cuba to hear an annual prediction for the New Year.

Priests from the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria have written their traditional "Letter of the Year".

This year, they say, the Gods are smiling on Cuba, as it relations with the U.S. seem set to improve after decades of hostility.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BABALAWO IFA IWORI BOFUN (L), LAZARO CUESTA, PRIEST OF THE YORUBA RELIGION SAYING:

"The signs we are given say we must continue to sit at the negotiating table so we may share the things that unite us and put aside those things that separate us."

The predictions come to the priests through a complex system of divination.

More than a million Cubans follow Santeria -- a blend of African religious traditions and Roman Catholicism -- and the annual letter often becomes a talking point across the island nation.