Fragallia

Pirts day

December 12, 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 45% 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.

♀︎ Venus 4. of the day

Planetary week

a third, independent system

Friday · Venus ♀︎. Relationships, beauty, pleasure, art, peace. A good day to meet, to reconcile, to tend to yourself, to shop for beauty, to make and to enjoy. Agreements reached on a Friday tend to hold, because they rest on liking rather than pressure. A poor day for rough work and confrontation. The shadow side is idleness, indulgence, waste.

Current planetary hour: ♀︎ Venus — hour 4 of the day.

Relationships, beauty, pleasure, art, reconciliation. A good hour to meet, to make peace, to tend to yourself, to make and to enjoy. Agreements reached now rest on liking, not pressure. The shadow side is idleness and waste.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 6.8 h

The year wheel

Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 10 days

79% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♐︎ in Sagittarius, 20.6° fire
Day of the solar month
day 21
Next turning point
the winter solstice, in 10 days
Day length
6.8 h · sunrise 08:52 · 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

Several threads agreed here: both the waning moon and the Latvian phase-lore pointed toward pirts and water treatments as the natural work of the day, with Moon in Virgo lending the same cleansing a note of precision and order, and lunar day 23 itself, for all its warnings about temper and excess, likewise favoured fasting and the quiet guarding of the home over any new venture. Friday's Venus leaned the same way, better suited to tending oneself and mending old quarrels than to rough work or confrontation. The one note of friction was the crocodile day's own appetite and short fuse, which asked for some restraint and forgiveness alongside the cleansing — while the distant, low-riding Sagittarius sun simply colored the season with restlessness, a mind looking forward rather than a body settling in.

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.