Fragallia

Pirts day

December 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 3% 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
29

The octopus

Satanic day Anti-phase: day 15

The Moon is unseen, the reserves spent, the month's negative packed tight. The most dangerous day; the astral haze makes dreams and foretellings false.

Was favoured
  • + Only what is necessary, and finishing it
  • + Fasting, repentance, humility
  • + Baking bread at home; smoking juniper
Was avoided
  • − Starting or even planning something new
  • − Dark rooms, murky water
  • − Bone jewellery, disorder
Symbol
an octopus, a hydra
Body
the rectum
Stones
serpentine, black pearl, labradorite

Health — a divinatory system, not medicine

The rectum and the anus. Problems there were read as a sign of weak defence. Lingering illnesses could be treated successfully today.

Dreams

The astral haze — dreams and foretellings are false today.

Moon in Sagittarius fire

The road, wide space, learning, faith. You are drawn to distance and to meaning. A good time to travel, to study, to plan in broad strokes. The risk is to promise more than you can carry out.

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.

☿︎ Mercury 4. 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: ☿︎ Mercury — hour 4 of the day.

Words, documents, roads, trade, talks. The best hour to write, study, buy and sell, bring people together, sort papers. The mind is quick but shallow — a large decision is better not settled right now.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 6.7 h

The year wheel

Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 4 days

93% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♐︎ in Sagittarius, 26.7° fire
Day of the solar month
day 27
Next turning point
the winter solstice, in 4 days
Day length
6.7 h · sunrise 08:58 · 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

Taken together, the day leaned toward closing rather than opening: the 29th day of the lunar corpus counselled finishing only what was necessary and keeping to quiet, humble things, while the waning moon and the Latvian waning-phase lore agreed this was a time for pirts, water, and letting go of surplus rather than starting anew. Thursday and the moon and sun both sitting in Sagittarius pulled the other way, toward wide horizons, study, and generosity — a restless, far-looking mood that sat oddly against the lunar day's warning to attempt nothing new. A visitor might read this as a pirts well suited to washing away and finishing old business, done simply and without ceremony, rather than as an occasion for fresh plans or big promises. The lingering-illness note for this lunar day was mild encouragement for addressing something long-standing, though the "most dangerous day" label and the warning against dark or murky water called for a plain, unremarkable visit rather than anything elaborate. Where the threads agreed was on release; where they pulled apart was on ambition, and tradition left that tension unresolved.

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.