Pirts day
Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.
Waning moon 11% 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 toad in the marsh
One of the more perilous days — not satanic but critical. A misleading enchantment with one's own achievements is the risk; energy was said to drain out through the mouth.
- + Silence, rest, fasting
- + Considered, unhurried work
- + Pirts and massage
- − Chatter, vanity, haste
- − Starting anything — you sink into the marsh
- − Swimming, pulling teeth
- Symbol
- a toad, a marsh
- Body
- the hips, the thighs
- Stones
- orpiment, blue nephrite
Health — a divinatory system, not medicine
The hips and thighs. Hip-joint injuries taken on this day were considered especially serious. Illness was thought dangerous.
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 systemThursday · Jupiter ♃︎. Growth, learning, law, travel, generosity. A day for large questions: strategy, study, courts and institutions, long-term agreements, helping others. What is begun on a Thursday tends to grow. A good day to ask and to give — money included. The shadow side is exaggeration, promises beyond your strength, and the wish to teach others how to live.
Current planetary hour: Jupiter ♃︎ — hour 7 of the night.
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.
The year wheel
Last: Mārtiņi
Next: Ziemassvētki, in 28 days
39% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♐︎ in Sagittarius, 2.4° fire
- Day of the solar month
- day 3
- Next turning point
- the winter solstice, in 28 days
- Day length
- 7.5 h · sunrise 08:24 · sunset 15:55
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
The lunar day and the waning moon agreed closely here: both named pirts itself as favoured, both leaned toward quiet release rather than beginnings, and both warned against haste, chatter, or starting anything new — a marsh day best met with silence and unhurried care rather than ambition. The folk tradition echoed the same waning-moon counsel of cleansing and casting off surplus. Moon in Libra and Thursday's planetary temper pulled somewhat against that stillness, favouring talk, company, and larger questions — a mild tension with the day's call for restraint and solitude. The Sagittarius sun added only its seasonal note of inward restlessness, looking ahead rather than settling. On balance, the older, more specific layers — the lunar day and its phase — pointed toward a pirts taken quietly, without talk of plans or achievements.
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.