In this book I intend to demonstrate that harmel or wild rue, Peganum harmala L. (Zygophyllaceae), a common weed of the Central Asian Steppes, the Iranian Plateau, and adjacent areas, was the original intoxicant plant reprtesented in the Iranian religious tradition by the terme haoma and in the religious tradition of India by the etymologically identical term soma. I also intend to show that this identification of the plant improves our understanding of the origin and nature of certain rituals that were central to Indic and Iranian religions, and of the nature of the religions themselves.