Pirts day
Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.
Waning moon 44% illuminated
The waning moon was long held as the best time for a pirts visit. This was when cleansing and letting go were most encouraged — heavier whisking and a longer, more thorough visit were favoured.
The crocodile
A stress point, where the Moon's vibration changes direction. An appetite that cannot be stilled, a leaning toward fights, nightmarish ideas.
- + Guarding the home: cleaning, burning a candle, smoking it with herbs
- + Fasting; dairy
- + Forgiving, repenting
- − Anger, gluttony, revenge
- − Cutting nails, operations
- − Ventures, a sedentary regime
- Symbol
- a crocodile, a chimera, Cerberus
- Body
- the female organs (Muladhara); the spine
- Stones
- black nephrite, smoky topaz
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
The spine was to be protected; strengthening treatments for it were welcome. Illness long but not dangerous.
Dreams
To be read as the exact opposite.
Moon in Cancer water
Home, family, memory, the sense of roots. Sensitivity is high, hurt runs deep and lasts. A good time to be at home, to cook, to care for your own; a poor time for public confrontation.
Canon: Russian sources: the female organs, the ovaries, Muladhara.
epadomi.com: Latvian sources stress the spine.
epadomi.com is a divergent branch, shown for cross-checking — not the reference.
Latvian folk tradition
a separate layer · by moon phase, not by numbered day- On the waning moon — pirts, water treatments, casting off the surplus.
- Trees felled on the old moon rot less.
Source: Pēteris Šmits, Latviešu tautas ticējumi. Not the numbered-day corpus above.
Planetary week
a third, independent systemWednesday · Mercury ☿︎. Words, documents, roads, trade, talks. The best day of the week to sort papers, write letters, study, buy and sell, bring people together. The mind is quick but shallow, so large decisions are better left. The day calls for honesty and precision: what is said today is remembered. The shadow side is chatter, distraction, small lies.
Current planetary hour: Saturn ♄︎ — hour 4 of the day.
Limits, discipline, ordering, closing off. Slowness is an advantage here: archives, debts, repairs, fasting, casting off the old, anything where you must say “no.” A poor hour for beginnings and celebrations. The shadow side is heaviness of heart and fear.
The year wheel
Last: Miķeļi
Next: Mārtiņi, in 43 days
6% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♎︎ in Libra, 2.7° air
- Day of the solar month
- day 3
- Next turning point
- the winter solstice, in 88 days
- Day length
- 12.0 h · sunrise 07:15 · sunset 19:13
With the sun in Libra, day and night stood equal, and the body was said to sit at its own balance point too — neither the heat of summer nor the cold of winter had the upper hand. It was held a good season to settle accounts, physical and otherwise, before the year tipped toward the dark. Overdoing anything now unbalanced what the season itself had steadied.
The day, read as one
Day 23 fell on a waning moon, and here the lunar corpus and Latvian folklore agreed plainly: this stretch favoured pirts, water treatments, and the clearing away of surplus, both bodily and in the home. The crocodile day itself leaned more cautionary, warning of a short temper and an appetite not easily satisfied, and counselling guarding the home, fasting, and forgiveness over anger or ventures — a mood that sat well enough with a quiet pirts visit but poorly with anything demanding boldness. The Moon in Cancer deepened this homeward, tender note, favouring care of one's own over any public stir, while Mercury's Wednesday added a background hum of talk and small dealings best kept light rather than decisive. The Libra sun, meanwhile, spoke of balance and settling accounts before the dark half of the year, cautioning against excess in either direction — altogether a day whose traditions pointed, with unusual agreement, toward cleansing and restraint rather than exertion or confrontation.
Generated with Claude · cached for this day and updated when the corpus changes
Your lunar birth day
computed on your device · only the day (1–30) is used, never the dateThis is folk and divinatory material, not health advice. It is written in the past tense on purpose — "was avoided", "was considered" — and describes what tradition held, not what you should do. A pirts visit is a real load on the heart and circulation; judge heat, duration and frequency for your own body.