Katie Vie helps people enliven their wisdom and intuition. For nearly 30 years she has used scent, ritual, and bodywork to guide others through the natural cycles of life. Her love of essential oils began in the late 1990s during her massage therapy training at the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics, shortly after earning a BA in literature. That moment awakened a lifelong devotion to the language of scent.

She is the creator of the river island apothecary anointing oils, first blended in 2010 at the Marshall High Studios, an island on the French Broad River that inspired the apothecary’s name. Each formula represents an archetype, a concept she first encountered through literature and later came to understand as facets of wisdom. She continues to craft these blends in her woodland apothecary in East Asheville, called Darkwood.

As the founder and content creator of The Darkwood School, Katie teaches a pedagogy of archetypal and seasonal mysticism. A longtime teacher, ritualist, scent-blender, and bodyworker, she weaves symbolism, poetry, and embodiment into experiences that help people feel aligned with their own inner guidance.

Katie was certified as an aromatherapist in 2001 and began teaching massage and aromatherapy in 2005 at the Asheville School of Massage and Yoga. Over the decades since, she's developed a signature approach to teaching aromatherapy that includes not only proper blending techniques, but also engages creativity and enlivens a connection to the natural world.

Learn more at https://riverislandapothecary.com/