Pirts day
The time shifts the planetary hours and the lunar-day boundary; the sun and phase readings stay day-based.
Waxing moon 44% 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 phoenix
Cleansing and repentance. The characteristic practice was cleansing by fire, from a bonfire down to a single candle.
- + Fasting, cleansing the gut
- + Preparing herbal remedies
- + Travelling, moving house
- − Indulgence, egotism
- − Carelessness near water
- − A poor day to fall ill
- Symbol
- a phoenix, a casket of jewels
- Body
- the stomach
- Stones
- garnet, chrysolite, morion
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
A diagnosis was said to be hard to make today, and illness could drag on — a poor day to fall ill.
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- 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 systemFriday · Venus ♀︎. Relationships, beauty, pleasure, art, peace. A good day to meet, to reconcile, to tend to yourself, to shop for beauty, to make and to enjoy. Agreements reached on a Friday tend to hold, because they rest on liking rather than pressure. A poor day for rough work and confrontation. The shadow side is idleness, indulgence, waste.
Current planetary hour: ♂︎ Mars — hour 2 of the day.
Leadership, struggle, conflict, surgery. Much energy, and it wants an outlet — physical work, sport, a decisive conversation, casting off surplus. The shadow side: irritability, haste, injury, burnt bridges.
The year wheel
Last: Ziemassvētki
Next: Meteņi, in 20 days
55% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♑︎ in Capricorn, 24.9° earth
- Day of the solar month
- day 25
- Next turning point
- the spring equinox, in 65 days
- Day length
- 7.4 h · sunrise 08:50 · sunset 16:15
The sun turned at its lowest in Capricorn, and the shortest day was kept as the year's true hinge — the cold was at its hardest, but so, tradition insisted, was the promise that light was about to grow again. Endurance, not comfort, was the virtue of this season; a fire lit now was lit in hope rather than in need alone. The body was told to bear with the cold rather than fight it.
The day, read as one
Four traditions leaned toward cleansing and restraint rather than indulgence today. The lunar day's own theme was purification by fire, from bonfire to a single candle, which sat naturally alongside the pirts and its ash-cool moment of quiet. The waxing moon and Aries both favoured short bursts of energy over long, heavy work, and folklore agreed that growth begun now grows "twisting upward" — fitting for a brief, brisk visit rather than a drawn-out one. Friday's Venus asked for reconciliation and gentle self-care, gently at odds with the lunar day's warning against carelessness near water and its counsel of fasting over pleasure, while Capricorn's sun, at its hardest and darkest, called simply for endurance of the cold rather than comfort. Taken together, tradition pointed toward a modest, purifying visit — brief, warm rather than searching for ease, and mindful near water.
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.