Pirts day
Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.
Waning moon 98% 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.
The butterfly and the dove
One of the pure days. Moderation is its whole symbol — a balance between the physical and the astral. It was to be kept even if someone gives offence.
- + Cleaning in every sense
- + Quiet housework, solitude
- + Exercise, travel
- − Shouting, envy, aggression
- − Meat (fish aside), mushrooms
- − Operations on the bones and the thyroid
- Symbol
- a butterfly, a dove, a ladder
- Body
- the spleen; the renewal of the blood
- Stones
- spinel, tourmaline, pearl
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
Bone complaints were thought possible; operations on the bones and especially the thyroid were not advised.
Moon in Libra air
Relationships, agreements, balance, beauty. A good sign for talks and reconciliation. It is harder to decide alone — today you want to weigh everything with someone.
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.
Planetary week
a third, independent systemWednesday · Mercury ☿︎. Words, documents, roads, trade, talks. The best day of the week to sort papers, write letters, study, buy and sell, bring people together. The mind is quick but shallow, so large decisions are better left. The day calls for honesty and precision: what is said today is remembered. The shadow side is chatter, distraction, small lies.
Current planetary hour: Moon ☽︎ — hour 5 of the night.
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.
The year wheel
Last: Meteņi
Next: Lieldienas, in 16 days
65% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♓︎ in Pisces, 14.3° water
- Day of the solar month
- day 15
- Next turning point
- the spring equinox, in 16 days
- Day length
- 10.9 h · sunrise 07:09 · sunset 18:02
With the sun in Pisces the cold began to loosen into damp and thaw, and the body was said to grow porous along with the ground — easily chilled, easily moved to feeling. It was held a poor season for firm decisions and a good one for rest before spring's demands began. Old lore warned against trusting the weather here more than the calendar.
The day, read as one
Lunar day 16 and the waning moon agree closely: this was a day for cleansing, quiet solitude, and letting go rather than taking on, with pirts and water treatments favoured by both the numbered corpus and Latvian folk tradition alike. The Moon in Libra and Mercury's Wednesday add a sociable, talkative undertone that sits somewhat against the day's call for moderation and solitude — better suited to conversation and small dealings than to any large decision. The sun in Pisces reinforced the general softness of the season, a porous, easily-chilled time better spent resting than deciding anything firm. Bone and thyroid work were held unfavourable today, and meat and mushrooms were best set aside. On the whole the traditions pointed toward a calm, cleansing pirts day, provided it was kept gently and without provocation.
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.