esoteric Aromatherapy blending techniques
Blending essential oils is as poetic as it is precise.
In my experience, the ability to read symbols and infuse medicine with poetry and prayers are important skill sets, especially when making medicines for the spirit.
Join me for this unique Aromatherapy training where you will deepen your relationship with aromatic botanicals, hone your intuition, expand your olfactory palette, and learn to blend potent medicine for the spirit.
This class is grounded in botanical anatomy and inspired by the relationship of humans and plants.
In addition to learning blending techniques, you will also learn about ritual and “magical applications” like scrying, anointing, clearing, and protection.
So, witch scientists, poets, shamans, medicine folk, and scent-sculptors, this one’s for you.
Join me for Intuitive Aromatherapy and learn to blend from a place of intuition, sensory wisdom, and laboratory precision.
Hi, I’m Katie.
I’m the founder and content creator for river island apothecary and The Darkwood School.
I started working with essential oils in 1997 when I began my massage therapy career, blending massage oils, room diffuser blends, and beautiful aromatic sprays for my clients and treatment rooms.
I studied Aromatherapy and became certified through the Institute of Dynamic Aromatherapy in 2001, and then completed an Aromatherapy Master’s Apprentice program with the East West School of Herbal and Aromatic Studies in 2007.
Since then, I’ve taught Aromatherapy at the Asheville School of Massage & Yoga and at the Blue Ridge School for Herbal and Aromatic Studies, and at many conferences and retreats.
I began my product line, river island apothecary, in 2010.
This course is a culmination of my 26 years actively engaged in Aromatherapy and blending essential oils.
“[Intuitive Aromatherapy] is hands down the best class I have ever taken. Katie perfectly blends her skills as an aromatherapist, teacher, and mystic to create a beautiful alchemy that is hard to put into words. What she does looks effortless but is a result of years of study and practice. What I learned in a few days with Katie far surpasses the years I spent scouring the internet in an attempt to learn more about aromatherapy and blending. This class is for everything that you can’t learn online. Through this experience I learned to create therapeutic healing blends using intuition and sensory wisdom. I now have a totally different lens through which I see and experience the oils and aromas. There is now a relationship and connection with the plants that was missing before. This experience awakened so much in me, and I can’t wait to continue learning and blending. I cannot recommend this class highly enough.” -Intuitive Aromatherapy student, 2023
Course objectives:
- Learn to read 8 morphological plant structures as archetypes for blending.
- Educate your olfactory palette with a Materia Medica of essentials oils, absolutes, etc.
- Learn techniques for blending elegant and effective aromatherapy preparations.
- Experience ceremony in each class.
- Learn some “mystical” Aromatherapy applications like anointing and scrying.
Class Supplies:
Intuitive Aromatherapy workbook
beautifully printed 63-page workbook along with Mandy Aftel’s scent wheel for botanical perfumery
Take-home products
you’ll blend and take home a scrying synergy, anointing oil, salve, bathing salts, spritzer, and others
Lab materials
organic essential oils & blending materials, scent strips & beakers, and general Aromatherapy blending accoutrment for classroom use.
Class Structure
Module 1 // Introduction to Intuitive Aromatherapy
Lab: aromatic scrying
Take-home product: Scrying synergy | 5 ml glass vial of organic essential oil
Module // ROOTS and WOOD
Lab: anointing oil for channeling
Take-home product: Channeling anointing oil | 1 dram bottle of organic jojoba oil and organic essential oils
Module 3 // FLOWERS and RESIN
Lab: salve for healing & love
Take-home product: Healing Salve | 2 oz glass jar of salve blended with beeswax, organic sunflower oil and organic essential oils (including precious flower extracts)
Module 4 // LEAVES and FRUIT
Lab: soaking salts for protection
Take-home product: Protection bathing salts | 8 ox amber glass jar with organic essential oils, plant material, and seas salt
Module 5 // HERBS and SEEDS
Lab: energy clearing spray
Take-home product: Shift Spray | 2 oz amber glass spray bottle with organic essential oils, sea salt, and distilled water
Module 6 // Esoteric diagnostics, blending, and self-care
Lab: concocting for others
Take-home products: 1-2 products or formulas crafted by fellow students to address your specific needs. Packaging and materials will consist of those used previously in class.
“I went into this weekend with few expectations and some, but limited, experience with essential oils and product making and was blown away by the weekend! Katie holds such a beautiful container. The pace of the weekend was a perfect blend of ritual, time to connect and sit outside sipping tea by the fire and time learning, feeling into our intuitive wisdom as we explored the different archetypes associated with plant parts and essential oils, and then time to craft and apply our learning as we made salves, bath salts, anointing and massage oils, salt scrubs and spritzers. I’m walking away from this weekend with a deep appreciation for our plant allies and all that they can teach us and support us with. This is definitely a relational and depth course–not for someone just wanting recipes and instructions on applications. You will deepen your relationship with plants, aromas and applications. You’ll get to practice working with your own issues and stuck spots as you develop essential oil blends and applications to tend to those issues. I highly recommend this course for anyone seeking to deepen your access to your sensory wisdom and your relationship with plants, ritual and the natural world. I am leaving the weekend feeling deeply connected, appreciative and so inspired!” -Intuitive Aromatherapy student, 2023