Pirts day
The time shifts the planetary hours and the lunar-day boundary; the sun and phase readings stay day-based.
Waning moon 96% 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: ♄︎ 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.
The year wheel
Last: Lieldienas
Next: Ūsiņi, in 43 days
8% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♈︎ in Aries, 3.5° fire
- Day of the solar month
- day 4
- Next turning point
- the summer solstice, in 90 days
- Day length
- 12.5 h · sunrise 06:15 · sunset 18:45
The sun's return to Aries was read as the year's first true warmth after winter — blood quickened, and the body was said to wake before the mind did. It was a time to test new strength carefully, not to spend it all at once. The land itself was still cold underfoot even as the light turned toward summer.
The day, read as one
Several threads converged on a day suited to letting go rather than taking in: lunar day 16 counselled moderation and quiet housework, the waning moon favoured pirts, water treatments and casting off surplus, and Latvian folklore agreed that this half of the month belonged to release rather than growth. Moon in Libra added a social note, inclining toward balance and shared decisions rather than solitary resolve, while Mercury's Wednesday favoured clear talk and honest words over anything weighty or final. The sun in Aries, meanwhile, spoke of a body quickening with new strength that was best tested gently rather than spent all at once. Together the traditions leaned toward a cleansing, unhurried visit — good for washing away the old, less suited to great exertion or important decisions made alone.
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.