How to have a hot, impulsive Aries season in Brooklyn

By Paula Henderson

Aries season arrived this week, as it does every vernal equinox, one of those two days of the year when the hours of daylight and darkness are exactly equal, regardless of where you are on planet earth.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, this is the beginning of springtime and also the beginning of a new astrological year, a time when feelings of renewal abound. If you’re born during the sun’s annual transit of Aries — or you know someone who is — you can see how many of the characteristics associated with the Zodiac sign correspond with the first hints of spring: Aries is the sign of instigation, impulse and instinct. Born under a fire sign, Aries people will often act without thinking, regardless of the consequences, in a push for survival.

To have a hot Aries season in Brooklyn, spontaneity is key; prepare to be unprepared and go with the flow. It’s natural at this time of the year to feel a surge of physical energy. Many of us have been lying low for the winter. Ruled by Mars, the archetypal god of war, Aries is the sign most often associated with competitiveness for victory and a passionate desire to be first. There are plenty of constructive ways in which to use this energy in Brooklyn in the coming month without overdoing it (unless you want to overdo it, that’s cool too).

Here are my picks:

Get in on some ‘Extreme Action’
Streb Extreme Action is a dance company and school rooted in radical thought, founded in 1979 by MacArthur “Genius” award winner Elizabeth Streb, and located at the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics (SLAM) in Williamsburg.

STREB kicks off their spring season Friday, March 24, presenting Time Machine, a series of performances incorporating a wild kaleidoscope of action heroes, events and machines — a celebration of Elizabeth Streb’s lifelong preoccupation with action, and a historic look at her boundary-pushing career. (Streb’s book “How To Become an Extreme Action Hero” was made into the hit documentary “Born To Fly.”)

Shows are Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through May 21, with tickets running from $25 to $50 at SLAM, 51 North 1st Street in Williamsburg. All ages welcome.

If you want to get in on the action yourself, Streb offers classes for adults and children and invites spectators to swing by their open rehearsals which run Tuesdays through Fridays between 11:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.

Slamdance the night away
Aries is all about rage and various forms of self-expression often classified as macho. Gold Sounds in Bushwick will erupt in an aural assault Saturday, March 25, with “Brunx Hardcore Presents: Let. Her. Rage., showcasing Women in Hardcore and Women Empowerment.”” Rage filled performers are Grace The Enemy // Burn The Skies // Paloma Blanco // In The Next Life. This is a 21+ event and not for the faint of heart — or those who like their listening easy. If you can’t make it Saturday, Gold Sounds has a calendar full of punky looking bills and they serve the perfect hardcore companion cuisine, vegan food.

Enter The Red Pavilion
The Red Pavilion arrived in the red building at 1241 Flushing Avenue just weeks ago. Aries rules the color red — and is also a lover of firsts. The Red Pavilion is a first-of-its-kind Chinese teahouse and apothecary by day, Asian neo-noir nightclub by night. Created in response to increasing violence against the Asian/Pacific-American community, The Red Pavilion offers a unique immersive food and beverage experience which incorporates live music, performance art and traditional Chinese medicine. Friday nights you can be transported to Old Shanghai by The Red Pavilion Jazz Band, which plays American, Chinese and French jazz from the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s.

If Aries season finds you feeling lusty, you may be attracted to Lust Caution, a neo-noir cabaret experience designed by the high-class hedonists of Dances of Vice. to elevate your senses “and your heart rate” — pushing boundaries in true Aries fashion.

The Red Pavilion also takes the quality of Zodiacal time into consideration. Founder and traditional Chinese medicine chef Zoey Gong has a remedy for potential pitfalls of Aries season: “Since tempers can rage due to hot-headiness, at The Red Pavilion, we offer cooling and mood balancing herbal teas inspired by traditional Chinese medicine to guide the passionate, fiery nature of Aries to the right place,” she says. “Specifically, our cooling Herbal Grass Jelly with Coix Seeds is a great choice during Aries season for folks to manage their fiery force.”

Go, Cyclones! 
Sporting events may well have been invented to assuage the Aries temperament by providing a safer, more wholesome framework in which to ruthlessly annihilate one’s opponents, all in good fun. Aries season brings opening day, April 7, when the Brooklyn Cyclones kick off the 2023 minor league season against the Jersey Shore Blue Claws at Maimonides Park in Coney Island. This is the first time in the history of the franchise that opening day has actually been a day game. First pitch is at 1 p.m., doors open at noon. Plan to passionately holler and shout whilst beholding the decimation of the Blue Claws, all in good fun.

Brandish a blade
If spectator sports don’t do it for you, there is now a great opportunity to grab an axe by the handle and hurl it in the confines of a beer hall. Opportunities abound at Kick Axe in Williamsburg, Mad Axe in Bushwick, Bury the Hatchet in Greenpoint, and Stumpy’s Hatchet House in Sunset Park. Don’t worry, everyone wielding an axe gets put through a tutorial by a friendly axe pro before competing against family, friends and even strangers, so it’s unlikely an actual beheading will unfold. Possible, but unlikely.

If you prefer a more spiritually disciplined approach to weaponry, maybe Aries season is a great time for you to try battodo at the Zentokan Dojo, which offers comprehensive, balanced sword training and comprehensive, balanced personal growth through the study of Toyama Ryu Battodo. The curriculum has three prongs: kata (forms), tameshigiri (cutting), and gekken (sparring). Not war per se, but also definitely not just for fun. It is said that Budo is a path for polishing the self, which demands a correct outlook in order to be meaningful.

And the self itself is another dominion of Aries: self care, self reliance, enjoying one’s self, selfies. Selfish is not a dirty word. I myself made a Zodiac Soundtrack for Aries Season full of songs about the self, immediacy, instigation, impatience and fires.

If you have any questions about all this Aries symbolism — and why I believe activating it as you wander the streets of Brooklyn helps “use up” the cosmic energies in a constructive way — please feel free to drop them in my mailbag.