Fragallia

Pirts day

November 18, 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 5% 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
27

The trident

Neutral day Anti-phase: day 13

The day of Neptune. The day holds the memory of all the lunar days before it and passes knowledge on through intuition. The lesson: pray for the world, not for yourself.

Was favoured
  • + Meditation, healing, prayer
  • + Water treatments, travel by water
  • + Sowing and planting; repaying debts
Was avoided
  • − Alcohol, a mirror, illusions
  • − Open fire
  • − Praying only for yourself
Symbol
a staff, a trident
Body
the lower legs, the calves
Stones
red coral, amethyst, charoite

Health — a divinatory system, not medicine

The lower legs and calves; breaking the day over a long stretch was linked to thrombophlebitis and lymphatic complaints. Illnesses light and short.

Moon in Scorpio water

Depth, secrecy, passion, transformation. A strong sign for cleansing, investigation, and shedding the surplus. At the same time — jealousy, suspicion, the pull toward revenge.

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.

☉︎ Sun 7. of the night

Planetary week

a third, independent system

Tuesday · Mars ♂︎. Action, sport, conflict, surgery. There is much energy and it wants an outlet: physical effort, repairs, the garden, casting off surplus. Whoever lies idle on their side today feels poorly by evening. A good day to stand your ground and to finish what needs pressure. A poor one for delicate talks and matters of love. The shadow side is quarrels, haste, injury.

Current planetary hour: ☉︎ Sun — hour 7 of the night.

Strength, health, visibility, authority. The hour for showing yourself: speaking up, addressing someone higher, starting what needs to be noticed. Quiet requests and work where you must stay in the shadow go poorly.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 8.0 h

The year wheel

Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 34 days

24% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♏︎ in Scorpio, 25.9° water
Day of the solar month
day 26
Next turning point
the winter solstice, in 34 days
Day length
8.0 h · sunrise 08:09 · sunset 16:07

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

Several threads converged toward cleansing on this day: the waning moon, the Latvian folk tradition tied to it, and Scorpio's moon all pointed to pirts and water treatments as fitting ways to shed what was surplus, while the lunar day's own lesson favoured water, healing, and prayer turned outward rather than inward. Tuesday's restless Mars energy sat a little apart, better suited to effort and finishing tasks under pressure than to quiet, lingering warmth, and old sun-in-Scorpio lore warned that whatever was caught now tended to run deep and slow to pass. The lunar day's counsel to avoid fire and self-regarding prayer, and its old link between broken-off bathing and troubles in the legs, suggested the day favoured an unhurried, complete visit rather than one cut short. Taken together, the traditions largely agreed this was a day for release rather than building up, though the sharper, more combative undertow of Mars and Scorpio's jealousy and suspicion were worth noting as a discordant note beneath the cleansing theme.

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.