Sedna Rises

Lily Michaud, Sedna, 42” x 52” quilt (toddler size), velvet, silk, synthetics, sequins, gemstones, pearls, glass, 2026. Available for purchase

Quilted with Sedna’s story:

“My husband was an evil raven in disguise

I escaped by kayak with my father’s help.

he threw me overboard to escape my husband

I grabbed the kayak he cut off my fingers

A storm came I fell through the water

My fingers became sea creatures

the Storm goddess

my lover

We live opulently

in the depths Play nice we can nourish or kill

Close up of the raven that, what was once Sedna’s finger, now, as an octopus, consumes.

Close up of the octopus’s eye.

For years, when I heard Sedna’s story, it ended with her fingers and hands being chopped off and her falling to the bottom of the sea. It was bleak! While meditating with Octopus, I was asked “What was the purpose of that myth?” It is the Inuit myth for the origin of all sea creatures. They are all magnificently regenerative. If not regrowing limbs or healing quickly, they are making pearls. What better guidance for fully living after surviving abuse and attempted murder? Now Sedna and the Storm goddess are prayed to, will the fisher folk survive through storms, will they have enough catch?

Sedna’s afterlife quilt (a life, very much alive under the sea) is in the works. :)

Dowry

Close up of Dowry, Lily Michaud, fabric, tears, and transformation, Queen Size, 2023-2025. Available for purchase

We are becoming more aware that we are in a male violence epidemic. The desire to crush women’s spirits to feel superior or gratify oneself at the expense of another is nothing new. It is a pathetic expression of arrested emotional and social development, utter lack of integrity, and, these days, culturally spurred psychosis. The people who debase anyone for their own pleasure or to make them look relatively better (whether through rape, bullying, racism, classism, etc) are weak people, of little to no value—in the ant world, they would be ripped limb from limb—it often feels we would do better to follow this path. However, if you hear derogatory talk towards anyone, assess whether you can call the person in, Loretta J. Ross style, or if you need to stay away and warn people about the person. If that doesn’t work, what will be the progressive plan for cultural transformation?

Through this piece, I question how formative ideologies of the patriarchal era translate into physical world violence.

Close up of Dowry Quilt, “money Shot” with gun. 2025

When we won’t believe an accusation, but we will believe how unfortunately traumatized a survivor is, this weight this quilt contains is the dowry we cultivate.

Close up of Dowry, “Slut Bitch”, 2025

The left side of the quilt is stitched with more subtle forms of oppression and blaming the victim; on the right, overt oppression.

Top: Lilith wanted what?

Left: Shhh, just let it go | Sita Rama | What were you wearing? | No one needs to know | (the apple image from Eden) | Think of his REPUTATION | She’s so emotional

Right: CUNT | the PO-PO | Slut | Bitch | Whore | money Shot | Our $ LAW corrupt, right-wing or brainwashed JUDGES with unchecked power

Lily Michaud, Dowry, Queen Size, 2025.

Healing with the Kirtan Kriya

I had a lot of PTSD from this experience. I prayed and tried many things, and nothing seemed to help in an ongoing way. I prayed to Mother Meera, asking for her help. A few days later, wandering through the Iowa City Public Library I found A Woman’s Book of Yoga, by Machelle M. Siebel, M.D. and Hari Kaur Khalsa. I opened it up to the Kirtan Kriya. This was my first experience with Kundalini Yoga. It looked spot on, so I decided to try it.

Following the path’s recommendations, I did the exercises for 40 consecutive days. The kriya had such a profound impact in a short time (four minutes a day for 40 days). Out of a desire to manage ongoing stresses and curiosity about its potential, I decided to continue it. Gradually, it showed me many depths to relationships and the profound impact of sexual interactions, even on those who feel it is inconsequential. The Kirtan Kriya is very helpful for the stress of invasive incidents themselves; the ongoing impacts of cultural oppression and victim-blaming are harder to come to peace with. Like the moon with her changing faces, we can retract and shine our gifts to inspire growth and transformation—ie respect.

Here is my tutorial. In the video, I introduce myself by my spiritual name: Arati, pronounced more like art-y. The name was a gift from my meditation teacher, Shri Anandi Ma.

Freedom Quilt

Lily Michaud, Freedom Quilt, 87.5” x 76.5” (twin), cyanotype and indigo dyed cotton and silk, 2025.

This is a teaching quilt. I am filming videos on each herb. Visit my herbalism website, Brown Bear Herbs, to watch and learn how to help people, or yourself, use herbalism to leave dangerous situations and begin to recalibrate and heal.

About the Project and Process: I made this quilt using the flying geese pattern. During the Underground Railroad, quilts were used to help enslaved people travel to free spaces. In the flying geese pattern, the darker triangles pointed the way forward, either literally or by reminding travelers to follow geese north in the Spring. The quilts were often hung on clotheslines or fences, as they dried. In this way, a covert message was sent.

In my quilt, cyanotype prints show herbs that can provide support to those who must leave their homes to find safety or freedom. The focus of this investigation, through art and herbalism, is on victims of in-home abuse, although many of these herbs could be helpful for people who leave their homes or homeland for more systemic reasons. The quilt shares plants that can support victims in phases of departure, building healthier community relationships after abuse, healing from abuse, and herbs to improve endurance in what can become a long-term battle for domination and control if family courts are involved.

During the Underground Railroad, there were safer places for Blacks in the United States than the South. Today, according to the voices of many and an in-depth investigation by the United Nations, there appears to be no place on Earth where victims of domestic abuse (or intimate partner violence, IPV) or child abuse can go to seek refuge. Instead, these people, often women and children, who have fled for their lives, are sent to their home courts, where the children are typically returned to the control of abusive parents and usually, the mother is treated as a criminal or kidnapper. The laws that support these legal practices are not written to discriminate against women, so it is possible they could be used against a man who was leaving the home with children for safety; however, the way the law is acted out, it most often harms women and minorities. Read more about it here.

The United Nations document debunks the legal reasoning behind common legal ploys that perpetuate abusers’ rights. In the United States, reports of child abuse can even end with the children being indoctrinated in “reunification camps,” which teach the child that the abuse they experienced either never happened or was fine, and the real problem is the reporting parent. There are multiple class action lawsuits in progress against reunification camps. It is well understood that in-home violence leads to poor physical and mental outcomes, even death by murder or suicide. Yet these barbaric legal standards persist. It should not be too surprising since we have elected a convicted rapist as president and are rolling back reproductive rights for women.

During the Underground Railroad, making quilts took a long time, and the risk of aiding enslaved people seeking freedom could include violence, incarceration, and death. Today, supporting victims of abuse still invokes fear of social or physical harm. Often, aid is given in subtle or covert ways. This quilt is an act of creating comfort, a message about the earth medicine that can make the journey easier, and a gratitude acknowledgment to those who help.