Fragallia

Pirts day

December 02, 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 38% 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.

♄︎ Saturn 4. of the day

Planetary week

a third, independent system

Wednesday · 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: ♄︎ Saturn — hour 4 of the day.

Limits, discipline, ordering, closing off. Slowness is an advantage here: archives, debts, repairs, fasting, casting off the old, anything where you must say “no.” A poor hour for beginnings and celebrations. The shadow side is heaviness of heart and fear.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 7.2 h

The year wheel

Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 20 days

56% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♐︎ in Sagittarius, 10.2° fire
Day of the solar month
day 11
Next turning point
the winter solstice, in 20 days
Day length
7.2 h · sunrise 08:37 · sunset 15:47

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

Both the waning moon and Latvian folklore agreed plainly on this one: it was a day for pirts, water treatments, and casting off the surplus, with the Moon in tidy, precision-favouring Virgo lending its own support to the same cleansing instinct. The 23rd lunar day struck a more cautionary note, however, marking it as a stress point prone to bad temper and overeating, where guarding the home and forgiving old grudges were counted wiser than starting anything new. Wednesday's Mercury added its own thread — sharp for talk and small dealings, but not a day for weighty decisions — while the low winter sun in Sagittarius simply asked for patience with a restless, inward-turning mood. Taken together, the traditions leaned toward washing away rather than taking on: a fitting day to let the pirts do its quiet work of release, so long as the crocodile day's warning against anger and excess was kept in mind.

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.