Fragallia

Pirts day

August 04, 2026 · computed for Rīga

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

Waning moon 69% 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
21

The herd of horses

Neutral day Anti-phase: day 7

All the horsepower of the body. The body is the chariot, the mind the driver. Courage, fearlessness, records and feats.

Was favoured
  • + Exercise, fresh air, cold-water bathing
  • + Group work, shared decisions
  • + Starting new work
Was avoided
  • − Lies, flattery, fawning
  • − Overloading the liver
  • − Trading a principle for an advantage
Symbol
a herd of horses, a chariot
Body
the liver, the blood
Stones
pyrite, aventurine, obsidian

Health — a divinatory system, not medicine

The blood-forming system, the liver especially — it was not to be overloaded. Blood-cleansing foods: carrots, beetroot, cranberries, rowan; herbal teas and fresh-pressed juices.

Moon in Aries fire

Short, sharp tasks that need a flare of energy but not a long stretch of it. Bold decisions, new beginnings, risky ones included. The other side is a quick temper: patience with those close to you was advised today, because a quarrel starts easily.

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.

♃︎ Jupiter 4. of the day

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: ♃︎ Jupiter — hour 4 of the day.

Growth, learning, law, travel, generosity. An hour for large questions: strategy, institutions and courts, long-term agreements, asking and giving. What is begun now tends to grow. The shadow side is exaggeration and promises beyond your strength.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 16.0 h

The year wheel

Last: Jāņi
Next: Māras, in 4 days

93% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♌︎ in Leo, 12.0° fire
Day of the solar month
day 13
Next turning point
the autumn equinox, in 50 days
Day length
16.0 h · sunrise 05:28 · sunset 21:29

In Leo the sun stood at its fullest strength, and the body's own heat was said to run highest with it — good for anything that needed vigour, poor for anything needing a cool head. The grain ripened under this sun, and so, tradition warned, did a person's pride. Rest in shade was taken seriously, not as weakness.

The day, read as one

Four different clocks agreed today on one thing: this was a day of releasing rather than gathering. Lunar day 21 and the waning moon both pointed to pirts, cold water and cleansing, with the liver and blood asked to do their share of the letting-go, and Latvian folklore backed the same reading — old moon, casting off the surplus. Mars-ruled Tuesday and the moon's passage through fiery Aries added a current of restless, quick energy underneath that calm, favouring short, vigorous effort over any long soak, and warning that patience wore thin easily. The Leo sun raised the body's heat higher still, making a case for shade and a cool head rather than lingering warmth. Taken together, tradition suggested a brisk, cleansing pirts visit was well timed today, so long as it stayed short and unhurried tempers were kept in check.

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.