Combining Native American and African heritage, Boe Glasschild describes himself as a black Choctaw: a Buffalo child. His Choctaw Indian name, Bushpolawa, means "Many Knives." He explains that a knife is a tool, and he has many tools. Boe Glasschild, embracing his Choctaw and African heritage, teaches a pathway of shamanism referred to as "Lightning Dance." It is the reclaiming of one's personal powers through releasing one's internal baggage and reopening channels for creating personal miracles in one's daily life.

He is the author of The Shores Within and can be reached at CreatrixStudio@aol.com and at Boe Glasschild, Creatrix Studio, P.O. Box 3775, Santa Monica, CA 90408-3775 © This article appeared in The Spirit of Ma'at Magazine

Celeste: The signs of a shift are everywhere. We are moving away from a cycle dominated by masculine energies, into one of emerging feminine energy. Do you share this belief?

Many Knives: That is what Spirit tells me, that in these Aquarian times, we're coming back to the female energy. And this is very good, because the planet is sick and needs to be healed. It's going to heal itself, whether we partake of the healing or not.

It has always been understood that the Earth is a female planet. She nurtures four worlds: The world of the Stone People, the Plant People, the Animal People, and the Humans. The Stone People are the energy holders. The Plant People give us potential — they nourish us. The Animal People keep everything in balance. And Humans determine how energy moves.

Celeste: What is feminine energy and what is masculine energy?

Many Knives: The feminine, Yin quality is receptive. It is a quality of bringing in. The male, Yang quality is aggressive and conquering. We have both Yin and Yang in our bodies.

But there is also another "side." There are three sides to the coin: the head, the tail, and the edge. The edge is that overlooked potential. In our bodies, it is the heart.

If you notice, the human body has three primal structures. We're a microcosm of the planet. We have the brain, the heart, and the marriage basket, our reproductive area. In the male, the male energy lies in the head. The Sun energy is his aggressiveness. That is why he thinks the way he does. In the female, the head holds the Moon energy. That's why she is receptive.

In the reproductive areas, the male has the Moon energies; therefore his body is like the Moon pulling the oceans. When that energy is aroused, he expands out. The female in her reproductive areas has the Sun energies. She is like the desert. She heats up with the Sun.

In the heart space, we have both energies in balance. To love, we create harmony and balance.

The planet also has these three basic things, the Sun, the Moon, and Earth, which is like the heart center.

At this time, we're moving into the heart center, and the Moon is a big influence. It teaches us the rhythms and the cycles. And as we learn these things, we become more balanced in a feminine way. We desire not to conquer but to share.

Celeste: Why did male energy become dominant during the last cycle?

Many Knives: Female power is nurturing and, as I've been instructed by Spirit, it chose to allow the male energy to run dominant. This exposed generations and generations of people to the male mindset, the aggressive side of us — the Sun that burns us.

In days of old, women determined where the tribe camped. The women led the medicine ceremonies. Then, with the establishment of Christianity on a larger scale, we became a patriarchal society, and the male assumed leadership. He dominated.

But in the natural way of things, the woman gives birth. It is she who carries the Life forward. The male is there to protect the female energy.

Celeste: How do you honor the feminine energy?

Many Knives: I do it by paying respect to Grandmother Moon. In all of her cycles and changes, she is a microcosm of the cycles of life. She has the new Moon, which is not visible — the sky is black. That is the beginning. She has the waxing Moon, which is growing. That is the growth. She has the full Moon, which is maturity. That is when everything comes full circle. And she has the waning Moon, when she starts decaying and dies to become the full Moon again.

I honor those cycles because life begins like that, ends like that, and continues like that. The planet does that and the universe does that and the galaxies do that. The whole microcosm or macrocosm has that same cycle. You can see it in insects. They are born as eggs or larvae, they become adult, and then they die. It happens every day.

Celeste: Is the change toward female energy happening automatically within each one of us? Or should it be cultivated?

Many Knives: It's going to happen whether we acknowledge it or don't acknowledge it. We are all involved in rebalancing. If we can cultivate an awareness within ourselves of this change, of this rebalancing of the universe, then we can progress and be in harmony with it.

If we're not aware, we'll get the lessons — but they'll be rougher.

Celeste: Why do you believe past civilizations, like Atlantis, died out? And why are new ones created?

Many Knives: A war came about between people using various energies — light crystals and dark crystals. Certain people were empowered with the crystals and learned to control the thought of the people around them. This created chaos, but chaos is just uninvited change. Chaos is beautiful, it allows us to restructure and grow. So we create chaos on the planet in order to grow.

Our people believe that Turtle Island, which is what we call the United States, was the meeting place of the four people: the Black people, the White People, the Red People and the Yellow People. As they accumulated here, they moved into the center and created the Mixed Blood — the Rainbow People.

At this time, as we go into this new emergence, we will have new understandings about this, for the time has passed when people could be considered as pedigreed beings. We all are Rainbow Children now.

Celeste: How do you see the future of life on this planet?

Many Knives: I've sat in the woods and had many visions for this planet. I've sat in the desert and seen the same things in different ways. I've had many Spirit teachers come into my world.

My greatest teacher was a wolf that I met. He was blind and had no ears. I asked him, "Why do you have no ears?" He said, "Because one day, society will lose their ears." I did not understand that. I asked, "Why do you have no eyes?" He said, "Because one day, society will have no eyes. We will exist by feeling and feeling tone and communicating." Then, as that vision grew, I understood that one day we will not have our ears, which is the telephone. One day, we will not have our eyes, which are the TVs and computers. We'll live in a more natural state again.

Then, as I was dancing with this vision, I understood the revelation of the planet being destroyed by fire. I saw the fire as aggression amongst people and the rage on the inside that people have for other people. It is the desire to be right, and the need to find someone to be wrong, to substantiate one's rightness.

Then the planet told me how it cried.

I saw this issue with energy and oil, which is the blood of the planet. When we take out the oil, we're taking the blood out of the planet. When we take the oil out of the planet, we're taking something very important. We're taking out the buffer between the center of the planet and the crust of the Earth. Once we cross that threshold, there's not enough oil and the lands will dry up. The lands will be destroyed by fire from the internal side.

Celeste: Do you see fire as the overall masculine element and water as the overall emerging feminine element?

Many Knives: Yes. The fire will cleanse the planet. It moves all the debris out of the way. But after the fire comes the balance of the water. Because the Earth Mother, as she burns, will soon be caressed again. The Great Sky Father will not let her suffer. When the Earth experiences the rains, that is the Sky Father making love to the Earth Mother. When she is in need, he will replenish her.

Celeste: What animals portray the emergence of the feminine to your people?

Many Knives: In our tribe, when we see the condor, we also see his brother the turkey vulture, which we call Peace Eagle. Our home has thousands of turkey vultures, and they teach us to be a Peace Eagle — to live in peace. They live by eating the carrion in the roads and the fields — they do not have to kill anything to survive.

We will move into that space, too, with the emergence of the new vibrations. We will learn to exist without killing. The plant people are here to give their life freely.

Please understand that I'm not saying it's wrong to eat meat. It's the consciousness in which we do it that may be wrong. When the animals are raised just for meat and not taken in a sacred way — mass-produced, fed all kinds of chemicals, then slaughtered — that is not the healthiness that Mother Earth wishes us to know.

Celeste: What is the vision of the Rainbow People regarding the new cycle?

Many Knives: There is a vision that comes, and it teaches me about the responsibilities of the Four People.

It told me that when the peoples were being created, the Black People were given the responsibility of water, but they misused this responsibility. The White People were given the responsibility of fire — it was their tool — but they took the fire and made bombs that destroyed everything. The Yellow People were given the responsibility of the air, and through trying to be a modern society, they have contributed to the pollution of the skies immensely by designing massive manufacturing complexes around the planet. The Red People were given the responsibility of the land, and were told to keep the land holy. As I look now around the United States, I see the Red People giving up that responsibility and selling their sacred lands to casinos to make money. That is not what Spirit intends. The Red People were the last ones to dishonor their responsibility.

When all of these things have crossed the threshold, then the changes will come.

The Rainbow People will be in the center and they will bring back the harmony and honor these responsibilities again. No one owns all the medicine. The medicine is for everyone. When the Rainbow People emerge, they will all share the medicine and circle the fires and eat from the same plate as one people again. That is what Spirit says.

Achukma hoke! This is good.