BY TREE CARR
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
Tree Carr is a dream guide, death doula, mystic, filmmaker and musician.
BY TREE CARR
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
Tree Carr is a dream guide, death doula, mystic, filmmaker and musician.
BY TREE CARR
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
Tree Carr is a dream guide, death doula, mystic, filmmaker and musician.
BY TREE CARR
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
When we die, we physically dissolve back into the four elements - a burial (Earth), cremation (Fire), given to the sea (Water) or a Tibetan Sky burial (Air) and there is a fifth, subtle element of Spirit (Aether) - quintessence - which raises the question of consciousness surviving after physical death. The intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between our corporeal bodies and the physicality of Earth’s elements forms a tryptic with consciousness that can be viewed as an alchemical marriage. How can this alchemical understanding of death inform our ideas about cosmology and the evolution of Earth itself?
The concept of the death of the universe is a sobering one. It can conjure up images of science fiction apocalypse and shatter our earthly human paradigm. In other words, it can make us feel quite small and insignificant and can strike terror within our hearts. Death keeps us in check. Although it is a fundamental reality that humbly reminds us that we are just passing through, it is still deeply taboo. Since the dawn of humanity, we have feared it, tried to cheat it, facilitated it, revered it, mourned it and celebrated it. From the halls of history of early prehistoric humankind, to the Ancient Egyptians through to our current civilisation of modern science and technology, human beings have sought ways to come to grips with and to understand its great mystery.
From the very conception of the universe, through to its evolving accelerated expansion, its theorised and predicted ending and the great mystery beyond the Big Rip at the end of time, we can follow a clear narrative that threads through into all of existence. This thread is very present within the framework of the conception of human life vis-a-vis sperm and egg, the growth of a human being until expiration of our biological bodies, the concept of a transformation or continuation of consciousness after physical death. This is the narrative of the life and death cycle. This is what it is to be a human being. Through the eyes of alchemy, we live in a universe which involves the transmutation of matter. To extend this concept further, perhaps it also involves the transmutation of consciousness and idea of the universe coming into being as an act of consciousness itself.
As Above, So Below
Just as the universe is predominantly composed of dark matter, there is a theory that Earth itself is also subject to this reality. American mycologist Paul Stamets studies earthly dark matter in the form of mycelium, which is an underground network of fungi that appears to form in the same patterns as the gravitational pull of dark energy. Mycelium also serves as a great force for the decomposition of expired species. It decomposes dead plants and animals in order to produce more soil. It removes pollution and cleanses the soil and it also breaks down rock slowly over the evolution of time.
As Within, So Without
Underground Mycelium networks of dark matter are also genetically the closest to the animal kingdom. Its intricate network grows in a similar network to the neurons in our brains. Mycelium is the cradle of life. The brain network of Mother Earth. The vast expanse of dark matter in the earth layer that creates life and absorbs life. As modern industrialised human beings we have become disconnected from Earth, from this network and its symbiotic cycles. Our obsessions with permanence, youth, immortality and control have resisted the life-death cycle. One of the side notes of this obsession is how we view death. In particular how we view our deceased bodies after we die and what to do with them.
Death as Death
Modern western funeral practices have focused on the preservation of dead bodies with embalming fluids containing formaldehyde, methanol, glutaraldehyde
and other solvents. The blood of the corpse is drained and replaced with these embalming chemicals. When an embalmed body is buried, it decomposes and the embalming chemicals seep into the ground and affects the surrounding soil, water and ecosystems. Formaldehyde is on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top 10 list of most hazardous chemicals for damaging the environment. It acts as a carcinogenic in humans and animals which can lead to cancer. Formaldehyde released from the cremation of embalmed deceased people enters the atmosphere and remains suspended for up to 250 hours. This becomes
readily soluble in water so it can bond with moisture in the atmosphere and turn into rain. This formaldehyde rain falls onto plants, crops, animals and water supplies below. Our human obsession for preservation of our deceased bodies is having a negative effect on the Earth’s network. In our pursuit of ‘immortality’ we are in fact bringing about more death.
Death as Life
The concept of contributing more death through our own death via the toxic riddled funeral industry is revelatory. Teams of innovators, thinkers and designers have allowed this dark realisation to act as inspiration to change the way we dispose of our bodies after death, in ways that help bring life. The Infinity Burial Suit (image below) also known as the ‘mushroom death suit’ is an eco-friendly jumpsuit woven from mushroom spore infused threads. The spores will begin to grow as mushrooms from your body once you’ve been buried. The mushrooms will slowly decompose you, neutralise environmental toxins within your body in the process, returning you to the mycelium network and help to create more life.
Tree Carr is a dream guide, death doula, mystic, filmmaker and musician.