About Natural Burial

Natural burial simply means that the body is unembalmed and is placed in the ground in a completely biodegradable container. These containers include a pine box, a wicker basket, a linen shroud, or nothing at all.

Natural burial allows the process of life and death to take its proper course. It may not feel natural to place a loved one in the ground, but that final act can be the beginning of your healing journey. By returning to the earth naturally, your loved one will contribute to a new cycle of life, and benefit those left behind.

Ancient Path burial grounds are full of living hope as nature thrives in our protected spaces. Our grounds will look like meadows, pastures, or farmland, not like a cemetery. We welcome the community to walk our hallowed paths, to reflect, watch the wildlife, breathe the fresh air, experience healing personally, and see healing in the earth.

Until recent history and the advent of the funeral industry, every burial was a natural burial. So, we are returning to an ancient practice. Natural burial allows you and your family to be good stewards of the ground in which you place your loved one because the cycle of life continues even after death. Natural decomposition allows our bodies to return to the earth and, beautifully, it allows life to flourish in the future.

We believe that as natural burial helps heal the earth, it also helps begin your healing process. When you allow nature to simply take its course, healing happens.

The Ancient Path Way

In an Ancient Path Memorial Park burial ground, you will pick a place on our property where you would like your loved one to rest. We will give you GPS coordinates for your plot, so you can always locate it. It will also have surveyor markers. Additionally, you may place a Tennessee flagstone marker engraved by one of our partners. We have a list of native trees and flowers that you may plant in a designated area of the park.

You can have a home-going celebration that befits saying goodbye to your loved one at the grave site or in another location of your choice. We have a list of partners that can help you with these plans. In the future, we hope to have a beautiful, rustic pavilion available for gatherings.

We won’t say a natural burial will be less painful or easier—those words do not belong to this stage of life. But we will do for you what we needed most in our own experiences of death—we can walk with you through a natural process that offers help and hope.

If you need immediate help with a burial, please visit LARKSPUR CONSERVATION.

Please let us know if you would like more information.
Dana and Jerlene