We recently connected with Rhonda PallasDowney and have shared our conversation below.
Rhonda , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
Introduction about my Purpose associated with my Business: The Center for Plant Studies & Healing Arts
As a child I was captivated by nature and plants, which stirred my passion. My mother, especially influenced my love of flowers with her devotion in gardening and caring for plants. She and my Dad had beautiful rose gardens whom many a people adored. In my late 20s and 30s, I learned about plants in a variety of rural settings. The plants taught me much about myself and how to survive in nature.
I taught myself to live off the land, and to familiarize myself with the magnitude of the Appalachian mountains vegetation of plants and trees. I dug a variety of plants such as American ginseng, goldenseal, burdock root, black and blue cohoshes and many more. Being in nature, sleeping under the stars and cuddling next to burlap bags filled with roots that offered their nurturing and healing qualities, following the cycles of the moon, and learning how to survive simply yet profoundly, and to face my fears in a fairly low neighboring subculture was a vision quest and a test that I endured.
I was particularly drawn to digging a plant called black cohosh. It was an exceptionally difficult and hard to manage root to dig. Black cohosh seemed to bring out my feelings of sadness, anger, anxiety, fear, and confusion. I would dig and dig, throw the roots, yell at them, and then get out of my “hole” and go pick them up. Returning to this deep “hole”, I would then wipe off some dirt, and suck on the black cohosh roots. They immediately made me feel calm. I was astounded at the therapeutic value these roots offered me. I tested this experience over and over, day after day.
In 1986, I met herbalist Matthew Wood in Flagstaff, AZ, now an internationally known herbalist, who became my herbal teacher over the years. I was sitting in a room of about 20 people, and he looked at me and said “aha”! He walked over to me with this wooden medicine box filled with bottles. He picked out a bottle, looked in my eyes, and said “will you open your mouth”? “Of course, yes” I said.
I felt the smooth gentle taste of several drops in my mouth and closed my eyes.
A familiar feeling of calm swept through me as if all the cells in my body were melting within me. When I opened my eyes, I asked “is this black cohosh”? “Yes”, he said. “It is a black cohosh flower essence”. I was intrigued that the energy of the flower matched the energy of the root. Its essence filled me and held me in a cocoon with a deep relaxed state of being. Matthew said “black cohosh is for those who feel entangled”. That’s where the shoe fit, and I intrinsically knew that the subtle essence of the flower, or the “spirit” of the flower offered a deep and profound healing effect. I knew in that moment, that I unraveled something deep and hidden within me that found its way out. I began a new journey of exploring, discovering, and uncovering the mystery of plant energetics. I experienced and learned how the healing power of plants, their signatures and personalities, their very intrinsic “essence” matched or connected with the signatures and energetics of a person. I began a new journey into the captivating world of whole plant medicine.
As my experience grew with herbal studies and homeopathy, along with my spiritual practice, years of experience in social services, becoming certified in Reiki, Touch for Health, and NLP, I synergized the “whole plant” concept with the “whole person” human energy system, known as the chakras. I studied and learned how the human endocrine system and each gland within it is associated with the chakras. The more I became conscious of this within myself, the more I was able to bring this consciousness of healing to others. I offered hands on classes in nature and a correspondence program.
My expertise evolved as I was able to demonstrate similarities and differences of plants and people. Through my own research, I integrated these findings with herbalism, homeopathy, aromatherapy, and flower essence therapy.
From my years of studies and experiences emerged the creation of my own business, The Center for Plant Studies & Healing Arts. As a product formulator, author, and educator, combined with a background in social services, my products offer a deep connection for people to heal and connect with the power of nature and plants.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My brands, as a product formulator, feature making perfumes and flower essence products that are as pure and natural as possible. My perfumes, Voices of Flowers Perfume with a Purpose, come from a place of offering you a vibrational influence for each energy center in your body to help you align with yourself and to make conscious choices in your life.
Voices of Flowers Perfumes capture the integrity and character of each plant or flower, offering physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual awareness. They are blended with essential oils and flower essences in a base of organic jojoba oil. Their scents are divine!
My flower essences are made and created in natural habits or organic gardens by placing flowers or catkins if trees, in a clear glass bowl of water infused by the sun or moon. This infusion extracts the energy of the blossom in water, creating a life force pattern of the flower.
All of my products which I am proud to say, are hand made with love in my apothecary.
I have spent countless hours in nature, including sleeping next to plants, observing and experiencing them, meditating and journeying with them, preparing and making plant and flower essences, creating plant formats that include getting to know a plant’s energy system that includes its roots, leaves, blossoms or catkins, seeds, etc., and what times of days and cycles they are in their highest bloom. Who are their neighboring plants? What kind of soil do they live in? How do different flowers and plants offer their healing qualities through the ways they taste, smell, touch, and feel? What do they offer and teach me about myself?
Wanting to be like Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy, who presented research on homeopathic provings, my intention was to “prove”
that flower essences do offer healing energy and help people connect deeper within themselves. I conducted a Research Prover’s Project in which I sent out unidentified bottles of flower essences to people throughout the United States. Each person completed a 7 page Prover’s Diary that I developed, which included documenting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual insights, dreams, and experiences while taking their flower essence for about 7-10 days.
They would then return their diary to me. I compiled all of the prover’s information, generally, about 10 prover’s per flower essence bottle, as a source for collecting Information of research and documentation. I also accumulated a vast array of testimonials for the flower essences “proven” and in my own clinical case studies.
The compilation of this material provided a foundation for my original Materia Medica of 48 flower essences, along with a plant’s family of origin, energy impact, key rubrics, traditional uses, odors, tastes, sensations, physical makeup, and the healing patterns of balance and imbalance in the way that each plant or flower essence may offer an insight, perspective, and a deeper understanding for any given person. This Materia Medica can be found in my book The Healing Power of Flowers: Bridging Homeopathy, Herbalism, Flower Essences, and The Human Energy System.
My flower essences are made with integrity, wildcrafted in remote areas where they grow in their natural habitats, or in some cases, in organic gardens.
I have many beautiful stories of finding the flowers, giving them my prayers, making their essences, and receiving their bounty. I honor the sacredness of this experience, and bring this special energy all the way to the final flower essence bottle.
It is my desire that each unique flower essence assists you in your personal journey of self, and that you will feel its gifts from nature.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I have a strong constitution and desire to thrive and drive my passions to completion….Because I am a detailed person, I document much of what I do and how I have studied, experienced, and learned about plants and the human energy system. Continuing education and experience, and exploring fields related to my interests have all played an important impact in my life.
I’m also a good listener. I stop and listen to my inner self, and I listen carefully to the advice of others, especially those more experienced than me in areas that aren’t my skills. I believe in valuing each person for the gifts they share, and I also appreciate working as a team member. Being a team oriented person, feeling the support of others and yet having the ability to direct my creative endeavors as well as what needs to be accomplished, is all part of being successful in my relationships.
I love being creative in so many different ways.. That is the backbone of who I am as well as that I am a people person who loves to learn. All of these qualities have helped me grow as a person, and motivate my growth in the business.
My suggestion to others is to live their passion, trust their gut, and learn from their lessons as I have learned from mine. It’s a never ending process, always something to learn and to do differently. Be humble, be strong, and listen to your heart.
I do love my work as a spiritual and plant guide, supporting others to be their highest and best person. I’m very fortunate to work with people from all over the USA and the world as a spiritual practitioner with Spirit Quest Retreats in Sedona, AZ as well as in my own practice. My work is rewarding, creative, and sustaining. I have much to be grateful for.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
There are several ways in which I am interested in collaborating. First as a product formulator, I can offer some innovative ways that the market is just becoming more aware of and ready to move forward in greater ways. I have nearly 280 gallons of a 5 flower essence formula that can be used in health and beauty products. This is inventory for sale, as well as support from me to create the “right” product for an amazing new brand.
My Voices of Flowers Perfume with a Purpose and perhaps my flower essences could be collaborated with health conscious, integrity and nature oriented people, who want to expand their own business to include my brands.
I want to explore deeper into what a collaboration would be and how the outcome would offer a win win to all.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.centerpsha.com
- Instagram: Center for Plant Studies
- Facebook: Center for Plant Studies & Healing Arts
- Youtube: Rhonda PallasDowney
- Other: Venmo Rhonda PallasDowney
Image Credits
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