12 - The Dead Who Would Be Trees and Mushrooms

Summary

The Capsula Mundi biodegradable burial pods represent a vision of an ecological afterlife aesthetically wrapped. In soft tones, promotional photographs display three large ovum-shaped vessels, their surfaces progressively mottled with soil, lichen and minerals, while above, the delicate roots of young saplings stretch out to embrace the pods. These vessels are designed to hold a human corpse as it gradually decomposes, producing nutrients to support the growth of a tree. Cradling the corpse in a foetal pose, the womb-like pod invokes strong symbolism of fertility (see Westendorp and Gould, 2021), forging a material connection between death and the regeneration of life (Bloch and Parry, 1982). In so doing, Capsula Mundi evokes continuous cycles of renewal and rebirth, such that, as its website intimates: ‘Life is forever.’ Since its launch in 2003, Capsula Mundi has captured the imagination of news editors, social media users and artists worldwide. However, despite headlines rather naively proclaiming that the system will ‘turn your body into a tree’ (Erizanu, 2018), Capsula Mundi is currently only available as a container for ashes, functionally indistinguishable from the many biodegradable urns on the market. At the time of writing, the whole-body burial pod is described as ‘still in a development phase … not ready for the market’ (Capsula Mundi, nd).

Still, the promise of Capsula Mundi is clearly compelling. Images of the product periodically go viral on social media or are featured in news stories about ‘eco-death’. When this happens, funeral companies who we work with across Australia are flooded with calls from people eager to secure this body disposal option for themselves. Workers are left with the difficult task of describing the inherent impracticalities of the Capsula Mundi vision: the challenge of moulding a corpse into the foetal position, the additional burial depth required, and the impact of volatile, decomposing flesh on new plant growth; all while trying to offer more pragmatic, if less aesthetic, options for eco-friendly deathcare. As Capsula Mundi so neatly demonstrates, the allure of a posthumous ‘return to nature’ or ecological afterlife belies the uncomfortable realities of the decomposing human corpse and, more broadly, humanity's relationship to the environment.