The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. … The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. … How can you buy or sell the sky? The land?

– Chief Seattle

The feng shui Form School in Seattle teaches us that form defines energy. From a large geographical pattern to the layout of a city, an apartment complex, an individual house or even the arrangement of an interior space, the shape of the surrounding features defines the energy in that setting. This energy then affects the health, prosperity and relationships of the inhabitants of that space for better or for worse. Therefore, by understanding the energy of the forms around us, we not only learn to understand the energy of a particular place, but we also learn how to design a living environment to be in harmony with the pre-existing energy pattern there. Although this understanding of how the surrounding forms of the natural world affect human beings has been the basis of traditional wisdom all over the world throughout history, it was in China that it was honed to a fine science, due to the long period of continuous civilization there. Thousands of years of accumulated and synthesized knowledge are contained in the universal principles of the Form School.

Compared to the Form Schools history of thousands of years, the cosmological approach to feng shui is relatively recent, having developed only a few hundred years ago, during the late Ming Dynasty. The Blue Mountain Feng Shui Institute certification program includes study of the cosmological approach to feng shui (Ba Zai or Eight Mansions, San Yuan or Flying Star, and San Ho), while keeping the Form School approach to feng shui at the core of the program. Feng Shui classes are held in the Seattle/Puget Sound area.