Steamboat Pilot & Today

Anyone who attended Mountain Movie Fallfest's showing of "What the (bleep) do we know?" with its quantum physics/we-are-all-one message, might be interested in the similar message that yoga instructor Zett Amora plans to share tonight and Saturday.

"I show people how to discover an energetic system that is operating in their body," Amora said. "And I show them how this energy system is connected to everything.

"I will talk about how this energetic universe we live in relates to us and the changing of the seasons."

Amora will be leading a celebration of the autumnal equinox, which took place at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The autumnal equinox occurs when the sun crosses over the Earth's equator on its way south. It marks the beginning of fall. After the autumnal equinox, the nights become longer than the days.

"Whenever something goes on in the universe, it affects us," Amora said. "We're all moving around independent, but there's a sense of being in one pool or one container."

Four times a year, twice for the equinox and twice for the solstice, the Amora tries to bring people's awareness to a new way of thinking through rituals that she leads.

"During the equinox, there is a very definite change," she said. "It's a soft curve. There's a gradual slowing down, like a bell curve.

"Change is very stressful for people, even when it's good change."

Tonight, Amora and Celtic harpist Tisa McGraw will lead an autumnal equinox celebration with drumming, dancing and harp music. On Saturday, the celebration will continue with yoga, a contemplative hike and a chance for journaling.

"The idea is to take people into nature and open their eyes to the energy all around them," Amora said. "Most people feel it.

"I don't care how unaware you've been or how deeply you are engrossed in stressful, artificial civilization, when people get in nature, something changes."