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 Cancer water
Home, family, memory, the sense of roots. Sensitivity is high, hurt runs deep and lasts. A good time to be at home, to cook, to care for your own; a poor time for public confrontation.
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 systemTuesday · Mars ♂︎. Action, sport, conflict, surgery. There is much energy and it wants an outlet: physical effort, repairs, the garden, casting off surplus. Whoever lies idle on their side today feels poorly by evening. A good day to stand your ground and to finish what needs pressure. A poor one for delicate talks and matters of love. The shadow side is quarrels, haste, injury.
Current planetary hour: Sun ☉︎ — hour 7 of the night.
Strength, health, visibility, authority. The hour for showing yourself: speaking up, addressing someone higher, starting what needs to be noticed. Quiet requests and work where you must stay in the shadow go poorly.
The year wheel
Last: Ziemassvētki
Next: Meteņi, in 25 days
45% through this eighth of the year
The sun
- Sign
- ♑︎ in Capricorn, 20.2° earth
- Day of the solar month
- day 20
- Next turning point
- the spring equinox, in 70 days
- Day length
- 7.2 h · sunrise 08:55 · sunset 16:07
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
Today's readings pulled in different directions more than they agreed. The lunar day of the serpent warned against indulgence and impulse, counselling restraint and a light table rather than any excess — a caution echoed by Mars's Tuesday, which brought plenty of energy but temper and haste with it, better spent on physical work than on heat sought for comfort. The waxing moon and the Cancer placement softened this somewhat, favouring a quiet, homely pirts shared with one's own rather than company or confrontation. Capricorn's sun asked for endurance rather than ease, a fire lit in hope rather than need. Taken together, the day suited a restrained, solitary or family visit, kept brief and plain, more than any grand or social occasion.
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.