A martial arts competition on ESPN TV featured a fierce dance-off, in which rivals took turns brandishing their high-octane warrior choreography.

At one point, the announcer waxed poetic as the eventual winner pulled off a seemingly impossible move: “And that was a corkscrew illusion twist rodeo spin!”

I invite you to use that phrase as an incantatory invocation in the regular pep talks you have with yourself.

Ask yourself now and then, “What will be my next version of the Corkscrew Illusion Twist Rodeo Spin?”

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If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.
—Aries author and mythologist Joseph Campbell

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British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) had an unusual fetish. He enjoyed eating apples, pears, and other fruits while they were still hanging on the tree.

Why? Maybe because the taste was as pure and brisk as it could possibly be—an experience that I imagine would be important to a romantic poet like him.

In accordance with your astrological potentials, I suggest you periodically use Coleridge’s quest for ultimate freshness as a driving metaphor.

Go to the source to obtain what you need. Dispense with intermediaries. Be as fresh and raw as the law allows.

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To educate and animate others, reveal the raw truth about yourself.

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I saw my Aries friend Alexis in the grocery store. “You are even more festive than the last time I saw you,” I told her.

She was wearing red silk pants, a burgundy cashmere sweater, silver scarf, black snakeskin boots, and beaded black tunic.

A cascade of three necklaces hung from her neck: one of rubies, another of pearls, a third of arrowheads.

I noticed three new piercings and earrings in her right ear (white stones engraved with the alchemical symbols for calcination, congelation, and putrefaction), and a red dot on her forehead just above her nose.

She also happened to be carrying her snake named Esmerelda, which coiled around her left arm.

“The older I get, the freer I am to hide nothing about how I really feel,” she replied. “It’s not even rebellion anymore—it’s generosity. I have a sense that the world needs me to express my most extravagant self.”

I nominate Alexis to be one of your patron saints.

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The path the ancestors bushwhacked is overgrown, unused. The other path, smooth and broad, is crowded with travelers. It goes nowhere.

There’s a third path: mine. Before me, no one. Behind me, no one. Alone, I find my way.
—Aries poet Octavio Paz, adapted from the Sanskrit

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The above message, formulated by Octavio Paz, is an apt attitude for you to consider adopting. But it’s a bit too serious and bombastic for my tastes. I hope you implement its advice with playful joy and blithe amusement.

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“He in his madness prays for storms, and dreams that storms will bring him peace,” wrote Leo Tolstoy in his novella The Death of Ivan Ilych.

Now and then, this strategy works for you. The tempests you activate through the sparkle of your longing may clear away your emotional congestion, zap your angst, and usher you into a period of dynamic peace.

But here is a key inquiry: Is your intuition reliable? Does it accurately tell you when it’s better to forswear the storm and when, on the other hand, to risk being gusty, blustery, and turbulent?

As an Aries, you have the potential to develop an acute intuition like this.

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All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells, are within you.
—Aries author and mythologist Joseph Campbell

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“I am in continuous pursuit of the color red,” wrote artist Andy Goldsworthy. His specialty is creating large outdoor sculptures made of natural objects.

“As I approach the source of the color red, the more I understand it,” he tells us. That’s why he is fond of red rocks, whose hue comes from iron, the same element that makes our blood red.

One of your potentially enjoyable tasks, Aries, is to be like Goldsworthy: Develop an intimate and expansive relationship with red.

Why? There’s no need to be logical about it. In your case, an irrational urge for communion with red may be honest medicine.

(But I will mention that color therapists say red inspires vigor, zeal, determination, and longing.)

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Sacred Advertisement. This perfect moment in the evolution of your relationship with the color red is brought to you by New Scientist magazine’s report that athletes who suit up in red uniforms are more successful than those who don’t.

In one European soccer tournament, for instance, red-garbed teams scored an average of one more goal per game than the others.

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Come, pledge your life to radiance.
—eighth-century Tamil poet-saint Andal

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In defining the essential elements at play in a typical Aries person's agenda, I'm not inclined to invoke the words "sometimes" or "maybe."
Nor do I make much use of the words "periodically," "if," or "ordinarily." Instead, my primary identifying term for many Aries characters is "NOW!!!" with three exclamation points.

In referring to your sign's experiences, I also rely heavily on the following descriptors: pronto, presto, push, directly, why not?, engage, declare, activate, venture into, enterprising, seize, deliver, and wield.

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“If all the world’s a stage, where the hell is the teleprompter,” asks the aphorist Sami Feiring.

In my astrological opinion, you Aries are the least likely of all the signs to identify with that perspective.

While many others might wish they could be better prepared for the nonstop improvisational tests of everyday life, most of you prefer the naked spontaneity approach. If there were a teleprompter, you would be inclined to ignore it.

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We joined every dance. We found every sacred spot.
—ancient Greek poet Sappho

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Aries author Isak Dinesen defined "true piety" as "loving one's destiny unconditionally."

That's a worthy goal for you to aspire to. I hope you will summon deep reserves of ingenuity and imagination as you cultivate a state of being in which you adore your life just as it is.

You won't compare it negatively to anyone else's fate, and you won't wish it were different from what it actually is.

Instead, you will be pleased and at peace with the truth of exactly who you are right now.

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A Slovenian adventurer named Martin Strel swam the length of the Amazon River in Brazil. It took him over nine weeks to travel more than 3,000 miles.

Previously, he had breast-stroked his way down the entire Chang Jiang River in China, a distance of almost 2,500 miles.

He scoffed at the idea of conquering the River Nile in Egypt, however. “It’s long, but not challenging enough,” he said. “It is just a small creek.”

That’s the spirit I trust you will summon in yourself: a determination to take on invigorating tests that require high levels of resourcefulness. Skip the lesser trials.

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Either you’re growing or you’re decaying; there’s no middle ground. If you’re standing still, you’re decaying.
—Aries actor and director Alan Arkin

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The Carib people from Suriname quote their mysterious Snake Spirit as follows: "I am the force of the spirit of the lightning eel, the thunder ax, the stone. I am the force of the firefly; thunder and lightning have I created."

What I'm about to say may sound far-fetched, but I suspect you have access to powers comparable to the Snake Spirit's.

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You remind me of how Aries poet Marge Piercy expressed her quests for inspiration: "When I work, I am pure as an angel tiger, and clear is my eye and hot my brain and silent all the whining grunting piglets of the appetites."

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“I’m greedy,” says painter David Hockney, “but I’m not greedy for money—I think that can be a burden—I’m greedy for an exciting life.”

The cosmos routinely gives you the go-ahead to cultivate Hockney’s style of greed. That’s one of your birthrights as an Aries.

But here’s a corollary: You are wise to formulate an intention to seek thrills that educate and inspire you rather than those that traumatize and damage you.

It’s at least partially up to you which kind you attract. Luckily, you have a high potential to succeed at that task.