Pirts day
Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.
Waning moon 99% 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 butterfly and the dove
One of the pure days. Moderation is its whole symbol — a balance between the physical and the astral. It was to be kept even if someone gives offence.
- + Cleaning in every sense
- + Quiet housework, solitude
- + Exercise, travel
- − Shouting, envy, aggression
- − Meat (fish aside), mushrooms
- − Operations on the bones and the thyroid
- Symbol
- a butterfly, a dove, a ladder
- Body
- the spleen; the renewal of the blood
- Stones
- spinel, tourmaline, pearl
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
Bone complaints were thought possible; operations on the bones and especially the thyroid were not advised.
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.
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 systemMonday · Moon ☾︎. Mood, home, memory, family. Sensitivity is higher than usual — toward people and toward food. A good day for housework, for caring for a mother and elders, for water treatments, for anything that calls for gentleness. A poor day for important decisions and public steps: plans tend to change. The shadow side is emotional unsteadiness and taking offence.
Current planetary hour: Mars ♂︎ — hour 4 of the day.
Leadership, struggle, conflict, surgery. Much energy, and it wants an outlet — physical work, sport, a decisive conversation, casting off surplus. The shadow side: irritability, haste, injury, burnt bridges.
The year wheel
Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 6 days
89% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♐︎ in Sagittarius, 24.9° fire
- Day of the solar month
- day 25
- Next turning point
- the winter solstice, in 6 days
- Day length
- 6.8 h · sunrise 08:56 · sunset 15:42
In Sagittarius the sun rode low and the days grew short, yet tradition held that inner fire, not outer warmth, carried a person through this stretch toward the solstice. It was a season for journeys of the mind if not the body — for looking ahead rather than settling in. A restless spirit now was taken as natural, not a fault.
The day, read as one
Four strands point the same direction today. The lunar day's call to moderation and quiet housework, the waning moon's theme of release and cleansing, and the folk tradition's pirts-and-water-treatment favour all agreed that this was a day for letting go rather than building up — a pirts visit sat naturally within that current. The Moon in Cancer and Monday's planetary mood added a note of heightened sensitivity, favouring gentleness, solitude, and care for one's own rather than confrontation or important decisions. Only the sun in Sagittarius struck a different note, its restless, far-looking spirit sitting somewhat apart from the evening's inward, homebound mood. Bone and thyroid work were held inadvisable on this particular lunar day, a caution specific to that corpus alone.
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.