The process of designing a grave can be metaphorically described as follows:

We have more than once stressed the fact that all forms of cosmos-universe, temple, house, human body have an “opening” above. The meaning of this symbolism now becomes still clearer; the opening makes possible passage from one mode of being to another, from one existential situation to another. Passage is predestined for every cosmic existence. Man passes from pre-life to life and finally to death, just as the mythical Ancestor passed from pre-existence to existence and the sun passes from darkness to light. (The Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade)