The Weather this week
We have had warmer temperatures than is average at this time of year.
That has made the grass grow, and daffodils and other flowering plants are coming into full bloom, which usually flower only in spring.
With unsettled conditions likely to continue at first, the high pressure area becomes established to the northeast of Britain. This will bring an easterly flow of colder air through next week, and periods of rain or showers will increasingly be confined to southern or southwestern parts.
As the high pressure is building up, dry, settled weather with some isolated showers in the eastern parts, could perhaps be wintry at times.
Temperatures be will lower compared to recent weeks, perhaps a little below average for many.
Overnight frost and fog or freezing fog could become more prevalent, though any particularly cold conditions look unlikely at this stage.
The Winter Solstice, the 12 Holy Nights and cultivating your inner the garden
The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year is in London on Sunday, 21 December 2025.
In terms of daylight, this day is 8 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the June solstice day.
From the 19.-26. December the daylength is only 7 hours and 50 minutes with a few seconds variation.
Due to the fact that the sun is closest to the Earth on the 4. January causes this distortion of having a few days after the solstice that the daylength is only increasing by a few seconds.
Is this Timing a Coincidence?
This is caused by what’s called the anomaly of the sun’s dance with the Earth, which is not perfectly circular.
It is also called the lemniscate of the sun. If you were to mark the sun’s position against the fixed star heaven every day as the sun ascends and descends in the zodiac., you would get a figure of a lemniscate instead of a straight line.
This phenomena makes this time between the 24. December and the 6. January a very still and inward time, which was always considered the best time for contemplation and to enter the inner soul sanctuary and allow the garden to rest.
The Druidic order used the 3 days between the solstice and Christmas Eve for the initiation of young priest(esse)s. Even in the Mayan calendar this time marks 5 days from the 1.-5. January which were considered the days of ‘No Time’, of inner contemplation.
Rudolf Steiner communicates to Dr. Hahn that during the experience of Christmas followed by the 12 Holy Night:
“We sow the seed for the next 12 months as every day is an inner reflection of the forces of the 12 signs of the zodiac and its respective months of the year. Therefore these 12 days are important, if for example we make mistakes on the first day, we lay a seed, which, in the first month of January, will germinate negatively in the blood.
As you saw last week, we make use for the preparation of the seeds we sow in the garden by burying them in the earth to be exposed to those 12 days and nights and these supreme forces.
Rudolf Steiner’s indications for the Holy Nights given to Herbert Hahn
https://anthroposophy.eu/w/images/2/2e/Hahn_instructions_holy_nights.pdf
I am curious, if you will find that your New Year in your own life and in the garden will unfold more fruitfully practicing suggested meditations?
If you need guidance in these meditations and would like to join our Arc of the Seasons WHLU community, just go on our website and send us a message and we add you to our WhatsApp seasonal festivals community.
Burying your seeds during the 12 Holy Nights
As these 12 days between the 24. December and 6. January are a very propitious time for inner work, so the earth is also in a very receptive state for greater cosmic, formative impulses.
Hence, the suggestion by biodynamic seed breeders and other practitioners to bury your seeds in a waterproof box in the garden during that period.
Here are instructions how to do that:
- Put all of your seeds into a water-proof box
- Bury the box in a hole in the top soil – Tradition has it that people who put their seeds into the soil safely guarded from moisture until the 6th of January, had excellent results with better germination rates, vitality and yield, resilience against pest and diseases or droughts and water logging.
- Lift your box with seeds on the 6th January
- Put into a cool & dry place
I trust you did most of the garden work up to this very special point in time and will be able to reflect inwardly on the last year’s growing seasons – successes and failures – and vision your garden in the first week of January.
Happy Solstice and Yuletide; Merry Christmas and a most prosperous and healthy New Year
Hans-Günther
PS: 2026 Grow your own Health Calendar
This year due to some major delays with our publisher, we had to create last minute a special edition of our 3rd edition in PDF format of our 2026 Biodynamic and Grow Your Own Health Calendar.
It will be available by the end of the year and with more detailed information of what to do everyday in the garden and how to involve special companion planting schemes for your cultivars including wild plants.
And once again we will give you tips of how to work on yourself and your inner development.
Please keep an eye out here and on the BDA website or the Wholistic Living university website to secure your special PDF edition of your 2026 Biodynamic Grow Your Own Health Calendar, which you can download and print out yourself.
If you are a beginner gardener or novice with biodynamics, this is the best support you can get to be guided day by day in your garden.
