Pirts day
Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.
Waxing moon 43% illuminated
As the moon waxed, strength was thought to be building. A pirts visit in this phase was taken more for enjoyment and vitality than for deep cleansing — a good time for warmth and company.
The cockerel and the staff
The day of word-magic. Everything spoken takes effect — blessing, curse, and lies most of all. Prayers were said to be heard quickly.
- + Praying, using charms
- + Settling matters with institutions
- + Weeding out filler words
- − Lies, gossip, idle chatter
- − Breaking dishes, tearing paper
- − Pulling teeth — the worst day
- Symbol
- a cockerel, a wind rose
- Body
- the lungs
- Stones
- sapphire, white coral, heliotrope
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
Easy to catch cold. The worst day for pulling teeth. Latvian sources allow a surgical operation if the other indicators are favourable.
Dreams
Prophetic and quick to come true. A fighting cock in a dream — a sign of imminent disaster.
Moon in Aries fire
Short, sharp tasks that need a flare of energy but not a long stretch of it. Bold decisions, new beginnings, risky ones included. The other side is a quick temper: patience with those close to you was advised today, because a quarrel starts easily.
Canon: Russian sources: the worst day for pulling teeth; operations are not discussed.
epadomi.com: astromedicus (LV): a surgical operation is permissible if the other indicators are favourable.
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- What is sown on the old moon does not grow; on the new moon it grows “twisting upward.”
- This is the time of planting and gathering.
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: Ziemassvētki
Next: Meteņi, in 29 days
36% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♑︎ in Capricorn, 16.3° earth
- Day of the solar month
- day 16
- Next turning point
- the spring equinox, in 73 days
- Day length
- 7.0 h · sunrise 08:58 · sunset 16:00
The sun turned at its lowest in Capricorn, and the shortest day was kept as the year's true hinge — the cold was at its hardest, but so, tradition insisted, was the promise that light was about to grow again. Endurance, not comfort, was the virtue of this season; a fire lit now was lit in hope rather than in need alone. The body was told to bear with the cold rather than fight it.
The day, read as one
Four strands of lore, and they mostly leaned the same way without quite agreeing on why. The lunar day of word-magic made this a day for honest speech and settled matters rather than gossip, while the waxing moon and its Aries placement favoured a short, energetic visit over anything long or heavy — quick heat, bold but brief, with tempers kept in check around others. Monday's planetary mood added a gentler note, suiting water, warmth, and care for family rather than big decisions. Tradition was firm on one point across sources: this was the worst day for pulling teeth or any heavy procedure, so a pirts visit was better kept simple, warm, and short rather than tested to its limits — in keeping with Capricorn's counsel to endure the cold rather than chase comfort from it.
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.