A forest path through tall trees at golden hour

Terramation · Natural organic reduction

An ending that becomes a beginning.

Terramation gently transforms a body into nutrient-rich, living soil. Offer it to your families, and we carry it out with care at our Care Center in Arvada, Colorado.

Offer terramation How it works

How terramation works

Terramation takes place in a vessel sheltered inside our environmentally controlled Care Center. It is the most natural goodbye we know how to give, and our team has guided hundreds of them.

  1. The laying-in

    The person is placed in a Chrysalis™ vessel on a bed of wood chips, alfalfa, and straw.

  2. A gentle transformation

    Over about four to five weeks, warmth, moisture, and naturally occurring microbes do quiet work, the same renewal that restores a forest floor. Nothing is forced, and nothing is hurried.

  3. Curing and rest

    The new soil rests and cures for about thirty days, becoming rich, stable, and full of life.

  4. A return to the earth

    We return the soil to your funeral home for the family, or donate it to conservation land if they prefer.

A Chrysalis terramation vessel of blond pine, flanked by living plants and Colorado landscape paintings
A Chrysalis™ vessel at our Care Center
A small mushroom rising from a bed of bright green forest moss
Dan Ziskin, co-owner of The Natural Funeral, smiling under a tree and holding two full 25-pound bags of soil
Soil returns in 25-pound bags, about fourteen per terramation

About the soil

Each terramation creates roughly half a cubic yard of rich, living soil, about fourteen 25-pound bags on average. Families often use it to plant a memorial tree, enrich a garden, or restore a corner of land their person loved.

When the soil is ready, we return it to your funeral home in those bags, so you can place it in the family's hands. If the family would rather give it back to the land, we can donate it to conservation land on their behalf.

Colorado law asks two things of this soil, and we honor both: it is never sold, and it is not used to grow food for people.

Also offered: water cremation →

Opportunity for additional services

Your funeral home can offer custom laying-in and laying-out ceremonies, and the Care Center can facilitate those ceremonies on site, along with vessel and curing bin visits.

  • Custom laying-in and laying-out ceremonies

    Your funeral home can offer families a ceremony of their own, and our Care Center can facilitate it on site.

  • Vessel and curing bin visits

    Families can visit the vessel, and later the curing bin, at our Care Center.

An open terramation vessel bedded with straw and wood chips, scattered with flowers, feathers, and pine cones
Handwritten notes, family photographs, and flowers laid on a shroud inside a terramation vessel
Stills from The Natural Funeral's terramation film

Ready to offer terramation to your families?

Tell us a little about your funeral home and we'll walk you through how it works. No commitment, just a conversation.

Call us: (720) 504-3764

OR

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