The Alchemy of Grief – How Loss Transforms Us
My mother passed away on February 7, 2025, at 2:07 p.m. The spiritual meaning of 207 speaks of ushering a passage. I felt it in my heart long before it happened—I knew this was the week she would leave. What I hadn’t realized, at least not cognitively, was that my father had passed during this same week four years ago. Yet, in my gut, in my body, I had been preparing for this moment in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time.
Leading up to her passing, my life felt divinely orchestrated, as if spirit was arranging itself around me. I had just finished two retreats in Costa Rica that left my heart warm, my body grounded, my spirit full of gratitude. I visited my son in Texas, spending my mornings watching white egrets dance outside his window while deepening into my own solo yoga practice. By the time I flew home, I felt aligned in my heart with my mother’s wishes, with the spirit of life after death, with my faith that our Creator was in charge. All I needed to do was follow and stay present.
My mother’s passing was intentional. She was ready, and so were we. She had spent her final weeks with my sister by her side, a presence of steady love as her body became more fragile. On her last day, she was surrounded by eleven family members—people who loved her deeply. We sang to her as she had wished, filling the space with music and presence. Family meant everything to her.
And now, as the youngest in the family, I feel like the roof has blown off the house. My body, my being, feels vacant in a way I can’t quite describe. Some days, the simplest kindness—a touch, a little sunshine—helps me feel less fragile, less unstable. Yet these are just parts of me. Other parts feel strong, prepared, energetically aligned both in the subtle and the gross. My spirit soars in ways I never imagined, even as grief moves in waves, unpredictable and unrelenting.
I have felt the thin veil between here and there. I have witnessed old conditioned patterns resurface like a familiar but worn security blanket—one that no longer offers the same comfort, that no longer smells or feels quite the same. At the same time, I sense new freedoms rising in me, only to be met by waves of sadness. It is expansion and contraction, movement and stillness, all at once.
Through it all, my practices sustain me: gratitude, meditation, mantra, asana, and mudra. The steady presence of my husband, my children, friends, community and my dog Lilah—these are my daily refuges. In grief, I am learning what it means to soften while remaining steadfast, to surrender while standing rooted.
And then, there is the number 207.
As I sat with the weight of her passing, I came across the spiritual meaning of 207. It is a number that speaks of transition, divine passage, and trust in the unseen. It carries the energies of faith, potential, and spiritual awakening—a reminder that I am supported, that my mother is at peace, that the veil between us is thinner than we realize. This number arrived as a quiet reassurance, whispering that grief, too, is part of the sacred design. In this moment, I choose to trust that her journey continues, and so does mine.
Grief, at its essence, is an initiation. It strips away illusions and invites us into something deeper—ourselves, our dharma, our connection to spirit.
If you are navigating grief, I invite you to reflect:
How is loss reshaping you?
What parts of you feel vacant, and what parts feel unexpectedly strong?
Where do you find refuge when the waves of sorrow rise?
Let’s begin this conversation together. Let’s make space for the alchemy of grief, for the transformation it calls forth in each of us.
Jennifer Degen
February 25, 2025
Categories
Select Category...
- Alberto Villoldo
- Ancestral Superfoods
- Art
- Attunement
- Autumn wellness retreat
- Body
- Boundaries
- Breathwork
- Buddhist Tradition
- Chanting
- Community
- Contentment
- Costa Rica
- Creative Expression
- Creativity
- Crystal Healing
- Daily
- Deep Rest
- Diet
- Digestive Health
- Embodied Living
- Financial security
- Food
- Gratitude
- Grief Transformation
- Habit Patterns
- Hakomi therapy
- Hatha
- Healing
- Health
- Health Wellness
- Healthy Diet
- Holiday Event
- Hypnosis
- Hypnotherapy
- Intelligence
- Intention
- Intuition
- Judgement
- Kathleen Burns Kingsbury
- Kundalini
- Kundalini Yoga
- Leaning In Podcast
- Leslie Yerger
- Life Purpose
- Mandala
- Marriage Advice
- Meditation
- Mind-Body Wellness
- Mindfulness
Featured Blogs
