Pirts day
Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.
Waxing moon 98% illuminated
As the moon waxed, strength was thought to be building. A pirts visit in this phase was taken more for enjoyment and vitality than for deep cleansing — a good time for warmth and company.
The serpent
Lunar day 15 was associated with weakened self-control, and tradition favoured restraint over indulgence — a light diet or a short fast, simple food, and a shorter, calmer pirts visit rather than a long, heavy one.
The second satanic day: astral battles and temptations of the flesh. Self-control is at its weakest, instinct at its loudest; the characteristic temptation is a sense of power over others.
- + Asceticism, restraint, discipline
- + Hot plain food, pulses
- + Standing up for a just cause
- − Quarrels, idleness, giving in to impulse
- − Planning and holding events
- − Cutting hair, treating teeth
- Symbol
- a serpent, a jackal
- Body
- the diaphragm, the pancreas, the intestines
- Stones
- jet, emerald, morion
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
A correction of the pancreas was said to take place; the diaphragm and the abdominal organs were to be watched. Teeth were not to be treated. Best to fast or keep a light diet.
Dreams
Prophetic for the whole month. A quarrel in a dream — a bad sign; a dog, a barking one especially — a good one.
Moon in Aquarius air
Friends, groups, unexpected ideas, freedom. A good time for shared work and for anything new and unusual. In relationships — coolness: you want distance, not closeness.
Latvian folk tradition
a separate layer · by moon phase, not by numbered day- What is sown on the old moon does not grow; on the new moon it grows “twisting upward.”
- This is the time of planting and gathering.
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: Venus ♀︎ — hour 3 of the night.
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.
The year wheel
Last: Māras
Next: Miķeļi, in 28 days
42% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♍︎ in Virgo, 3.6° earth
- Day of the solar month
- day 4
- Next turning point
- the autumn equinox, in 28 days
- Day length
- 14.4 h · sunrise 06:13 · sunset 20:36
The sun in Virgo watched over the harvest, and the body was expected to keep pace with it — steady, careful work rather than a burst of effort. The warmth was already turning thin at the edges, so tradition favoured finishing tasks over starting new ones. A tired body was read as a sign to gather in, not to push on.
The day, read as one
Taken together, the day read as unsettled more than inviting: the lunar count fell on the serpent, its second "satanic" day of astral battle and weak self-control, counselling restraint and a light table rather than indulgence. The waxing moon and its passage through Aquarius favoured gathering with others and trying something new, Mercury's Wednesday added its own pull toward talk, errands, and quick exchange, while the Virgo sun urged steady, finishing work over fresh starts — a mild tension between the week's push to begin and the sun's call to wind down. Latvian folklore's planting lore sat quietly alongside without adding much for a sauna visit itself. For someone weighing a pirts visit, the old sources agreed mainly on moderation — a plain, unhurried sitting suited the day better than anything ambitious, and cutting hair or treating teeth was best left for another time.
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.