Fragallia

Pirts day

November 13, 2025 · computed for Rīga

The time shifts the planetary hours and the lunar-day boundary; the sun and phase readings stay day-based.

Waning moon 38% 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.

1 5 10 15 20 25 30
23

The crocodile

Heavy day Anti-phase: day 9

A stress point, where the Moon's vibration changes direction. An appetite that cannot be stilled, a leaning toward fights, nightmarish ideas.

Was favoured
  • + Guarding the home: cleaning, burning a candle, smoking it with herbs
  • + Fasting; dairy
  • + Forgiving, repenting
Was avoided
  • − 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 Virgo earth

Order, detail, health, work. The best sign for cleaning, setting things straight, treatment, and anything that calls for precision. The risk is excess criticism of yourself and others.

Sources disagree on this day

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.

☽︎ Moon 5. of the day

Planetary week

a third, independent system

Thursday · Jupiter ♃︎. Growth, learning, law, travel, generosity. A day for large questions: strategy, study, courts and institutions, long-term agreements, helping others. What is begun on a Thursday tends to grow. A good day to ask and to give — money included. The shadow side is exaggeration, promises beyond your strength, and the wish to teach others how to live.

Current planetary hour: ☽︎ Moon — hour 5 of the day.

Fertility, dreams, home, mood, memory. A good hour for inner and family matters, for water, sleep, and caring for others. A poor one for public steps and final decisions: mood and thought will still shift.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 8.2 h

The year wheel

Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 39 days

14% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♏︎ in Scorpio, 21.2° water
Day of the solar month
day 22
Next turning point
the winter solstice, in 39 days
Day length
8.2 h · sunrise 08:00 · sunset 16:14

The sun's passage through Scorpio was felt as the cold taking real hold — warmth withdrew inward, and the body was said to conserve rather than spend. Old lore treated this as a season for going quiet, for keeping close what mattered, not for open display. Illness caught now was thought to run deeper and linger longer than at other turns of the year.

The day, read as one

Lunar day 23 marked a tense turning point, yet its own counsel of guarding the home, fasting, and cleansing fit naturally with pirts work, and both the waning moon and Latvian folklore agreed that this half of the month favoured releasing and washing away the surplus rather than building anew. The Moon in Virgo reinforced this further, favouring order, precision, and bodily treatment, so the day's readings leaned unusually consistent on this point. Thursday's planetary mood of growth and generosity sat a little apart from the rest, better suited to wider undertakings than to quiet inward care, though it brought no real objection to a pirts visit. The sun in Scorpio counselled going quiet and conserving warmth rather than open display, which echoed the day's call for calm and restraint. Taken together, tradition pointed toward a fitting day for cleansing and tending the body, so long as the crocodile day's warnings against anger, excess, and overexertion were kept in mind.

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 date

This 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.