Soma ReGenesis
by Ronin Tsoma
Soma:
In the ancient Vedic tradition of India, Soma is described as a plant-derived entheogen that awakens the divine essence within. The Rigveda praises Soma as the ‘King of plants’, the ‘Creator of Gods’, and the ‘Nectar of immortality’.
“O Soma, You purify everything. You are the ultimate source of enlightenment. You lead us towards immortality.” - Rigveda 9.108.3
Soma is associated with a legendary process of ancient Ayurveda (the Vedic science of life) known as Kaya Kalpa, which combined an extended dark retreat (complete isolation from all forms of external light) with specific plant medicines to facilitate profound spiritual realisation, healing, rejuvenation, and regeneration of the mind-body.
Lost in the passage of time, the exact plant or plants used to formulate Soma has become a mystery.
Growth and Distribution of Peganum Harmala:
Peganum harmala is a medicinal plant that has long been theorized by scholars and ethnobotanists to be the botanical source of the legendary Soma entheogen. Native to regions closely linked with the Soma legend—including Persia, Pakistan, Kashmir, and Northwestern India—harmala grows in arid and semi-arid landscapes across North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Its range has since expanded through introduction and naturalization in parts of South Africa, Australia, Mexico, and the United States.
Harmala is an extremely drought tolerant perennial that can thrive in environments were few other plants can survive, including highly alkaline and depleted soils. This hardy plant produces elegant white flowers that develop into round seed pods, encapsulating an abundance of small, aromatic seeds. The hulls of these seeds are extremely rich in the beta-carboline alkaloids: harmaline, harmine, and tetrahydroharmine.
Medicinal and Psychoactive Qualities of Peganum Harmala:
The Peganum harmala plant has earned reverence in numerous ancient cultures due to its medicinal, regenerative, protective, purifying, and mystical attributes. Historical evidence demonstrates that harmala has been utilised by humans continuously for thousands of years, both medicinally and in mystical rituals. The seeds are often burned as incense to repel negativity, and in some cases, the smoke is inhaled or seeds consumed to induce meditative states and facilitate purification of the mind-body. Within these regions, harmala holds a significant place in traditional folk medicine where the seeds are utilised both internally and externally to alleviate a variety of physical and mental ailments. The sacred plant and its medicinal seeds are spoken highly of by Prophet Muhammad:
“Whoever for 40 days, eats 1 mesghal (1 mesghal = 4.64 grams) of harmala mixed in water every morning, the light of wisdom will turn on in their heart and they will be immune from 72 diseases that the least of them is leprosy.” - Prophet Muhammad (as recorded in the Hadith)
At the appropriate dosage, the beta-carboline alkaloids (harmaline, harmine, and tetrahydroharmine) present in harmala exhibit potent medicinal and regenerative properties. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that harmine can exert protective and regenerative effects on bone, ligament, cartilage, and organ tissue, as well as facilitate significant neurogenesis and calibration of neurohormones in the human brain. Other studies have highlighted harmine's remarkable antiviral, antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anticancer, antioxidant, cerebroprotective, and hepatoprotective qualities, along with its benefits in managing blood sugar metabolism disorders.
Harmaline, harmine, and tetrahydroharmine collectively exert potent antidepressant, anti-anxiety, and psychoactive effects. When administered at appropriate dosages, these beta-carboline alkaloids induce profound relaxation and expansiveness within the mind-body, while also augmenting cognitive function and clarity. In elevated doses, these alkaloids can elicit mild visionary and auditory phenomena.
Synergistic Union:
Harmala seed hulls contain the same alkaloids (harmaline, harmine, and tetrahydroharmine) found in Banisteriopsis caapi—the vine traditionally used along with DMT rich admixture leaves to formulate the powerfully medicinal Amazonian entheogen known as Ayahuasca. Both harmaline and harmine are potent monoamine oxidase inhibitors that render specific enzymes in the human digestive tract inactive allowing for the highly psychoactive DMT compound to become orally active.
The combination of harmala seed with DMT-containing bark or foliage creates a medicine that shares the exact same alkaloids as Ayahuasca and produces the same medicinal, psychoactive, and entheogenic effects. Furthermore, the beta-carboline alkaloids in harmala effectively enhance the effects of Psilocybin mushrooms. When consumed in the appropriate dosage, harmala more than doubles the mushroom's potency and prolongs the duration of psychoactive effects. This synergistic combination also introduces the comprehensive range of medicinal, regenerative, and psychoactive benefits of the beta-carboline alkaloids to the mushroom experience.
Advantages of Peganum Harmala:
Peganum harmala is a highly concentrated, environmentally sustainable, and easily accessible source of beta-carboline compounds. By simply consuming 3-6 grams of the powdered raw seeds, the mind-body can access the medicinal benefits, the full range of psychoactive effects, and achieve complete oral activation of DMT. In contrast, achieving equivalent effects with the Banisteriopsis caapi vine demands a much larger quantity of around 100-200 grams of dried vine material. Moreover, the caapi vine necessitates a complex processing procedure involving cutting, pounding, heat extraction into water, and long boiling for refinement down to an amount that is consumable. This process burns substantial fuel and leaves behind a noteworthy carbon footprint.
Due to its widespread distribution, drought tolerance, and ability to thrive in sub-zero temperatures, harmala can offer a valuable source of beta-carboline alkaloids in regions that fall outside of the limited growth range of Banisteriopsis caapi. The caapi plant is a slow-growing vine with high water requirements that is only capable of growing in tropical and subtropical climate zones. Under ideal conditions, the caapi vine typically takes at least 5 years to mature sufficiently for utilisation in Ayahuasca brews. In contrast, harmala can yield usable seeds within a single year.
Soma ReGenesis:
Although it is unlikely that the exact plant or plants used to create the legendary Soma will ever be definitively proven through historical evidence, the profound direct experience of a properly prepared formulation of harmala and DMT admixture clearly mirrors the entheogenic, medicinal, and regenerative essence of Soma as described in Vedic literature. As the adage suggests, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. The true nature of something is recognised and felt in direct experience and results, not from conceptual theory.
The convergence of ecological, historical, and experiential evidence suggests the intriguing possibility that the original Vedic Soma may have been the synergistic combination of Peganum harmala seeds with the DMT-containing foliage or bark of various indigenous plants. Among the potential admixture plants that grow in the regions associated with Soma, some interesting candidates emerge. One is a sub-species of Acacia catechu known in Sanskrit as Somavalka, which translates to ‘bark that contains Soma’. Acacia trees are often carriers of the DMT molecule, and certain sub-species of Acacia catechu are suspected to contain DMT in their bark. Another candidate, Desmodium gangeticum, is rich in both DMT and beta-carboline alkaloids. Its Sanskrit name, Saumya, translates as ‘rich in Soma juice’. Moreover, the use of psilocybin mushrooms in combination with harmala is plausible as the psilocybin and psilocin found in these mushrooms are molecular forms of orally active DMT. When combined with harmala, they induce an experience very similar to that facilitated by DMT admixture plants.
In our practice, we have chosen to use the term ‘Soma’ to name the entheogenic medicine created through the precise combination of the beta-carboline alkaloids of harmala with the tryptamine alkaloids of DMT containing plants or psilocybin mushrooms. Soma re-genesis is the resurgence of a Soma-like medicine, serving as a vehicle for creativity, healing, regeneration, liberation, and direct recognition of our true nature.
Green Tara and The Khadira:
Many years ago, during a Soma session, clear visions emerged of what resembled Buddhist masters flying in on giant lotus flowers (as commonly portrayed in traditional Tibetan Thangka paintings). While the yogis levitated for a moment in the expanse of awareness, a transmission came through, revealing Green Tara as the enlightened intelligence emanating through the DMT containing plant admixture. As this insight flooded the mind and heart, a vision of Green Tara erupted from the very center of awareness and engulfed the entire realm of perception.
Further research revealed that in Tibet, Kashmir, and India, Green Tara is revered as the Bhodisattva Dakini of the Khadira forest (Khadiravani-Tara). As a Dakini, she embodies enlightened feminine wisdom, serving as a guide and protector for practitioners along their paths. Green Tara is considered to emanate the awakened qualities of enlightenment—non-conceptual wisdom, compassion, bliss, creativity, and skilful means, and is associated with liberation from fear and obstacles. Remarkably, all the qualities and characteristics associated with Green Tara align perfectly with the experiential nature of DMT admixture plants when consumed in combination with harmala seed.
Khadira is the Sanskrit term for the Acacia catechu tree and its various subspecies that are native to the regions associated with the Soma legend, including Pakistan, Kashmir, and India. As mentioned earlier, one specific Khadira subspecies is known as Somavalka, which translates to 'bark that contains Soma.' Acacia trees often contain DMT, and while there are unverified field reports, certain Khadira subspecies are rumoured to carry significant quantities of DMT in their bark.
“The Sanskrit root meaning of the word ‘Tara’ is derived from the verb ‘tar,’ which signifies ‘to traverse,’ ‘to cross over,’ or ‘to ferry across.’ This root reflects the idea of transcending or crossing over obstacles, difficulties, or suffering. In the context of the deity Tara, her name is often interpreted as ‘She who enables beings to cross over’ or ‘She who ferries beings across the ocean of samsara (cycle of birth and death).’ Tara is seen as a compassionate figure who helps practitioners navigate and overcome challenges on their spiritual journey.” - Unknown
Soma mirrors endogenous neurohormones:
The mind-body manifests as a temporary and dynamic expression within awareness, conditioned by past experiences and influenced by the naturally arising and passing away of mental and sensory phenomena. Tension emerges through the mind-body's conceptual fabrication of separation and attachment or resistance to the phenomena that appear within the created illusion of duality.
When gazing into a mirror, the mind-body often fixates exclusively on the reflected images, neglecting the inherent openness and vivid reflectivity that unifies these reflections. Similarly, conditioned by habit, the mind-body tends to focus on the stimulating phenomena emerging within awareness, overlooking its true nature—the intrinsically non-dual openness and clarity from which all interdependently manifests.
All that arises within awareness is temporary—coming and going, growing and decaying, created and destroyed, living and dying—never providing lasting satisfaction. Fixation on these transient experiences entangles the mind-body in tensions of attachment and resistance to thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, concepts, emotions, and sensations. These tensions prevent the mind-body from resting at ease, obscure the open clarity of awareness, fabricate the illusion of duality, and ultimately create suffering. It is akin to believing that a dream is ultimately real and becoming ensnared in its narrative.
“Truly, speaking, from the absolute point of view, there really does not exist any separation between the relative condition and its true nature, in the same way that a mirror and the reflections in it are in fact one indivisible whole. However, our situation is such that it is as if we have come out of the mirror and are now looking at the reflections that are appearing in it. Unaware of our own nature of clarity, purity, and limpidity (openness), we consider the reflections to be real, developing aversion and attachment. Thus instead of these reflections being the means for us to discover our own true nature, they become a factor that conditions us. And we live distracted by the relative condition, attaching great importance to everything.” - Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche