Tobo Tree

There is a sacred mountain in Iran known as KohiGabr,

"mountain of the fire worshippers." In

ancient Persia, before the advent of Islam, the fire

worshippers were the people who would ritually

drink haoma (cf. Peganum harmala). A ruin at the

peak of the mountain is thought to once have been

a Zoroastrian fire temple (cf. Ephedra spp.):

Concentrated magical essence has remained

in this place, and an army of especially gifted

genies dwells there. It is said that the "power"

causes people who wish to approach the spot

to shrink back. . . . Stories relate how those

who climbed Kohi returned as madmen or

cripples or wasted away. (1. Shah 1994, 153*)

We do not know what really transpired on this

mountain. But it was associated both with other

places of power and with certain psychoactive

substances:

Not far from this place, there are other

mountains that are also linked to magical

concepts. Here the fire-worshipping

magicians once made offerings of fruit to

placate certain spirits and to entice them into

captivity so that they would obey their

commands. Anyone who wanted to have a

wish fulfilled would write it down and place it

in a bowl filled with fruit, which the magicians

would then take up the mountain. At the peak

of one such mountain grew the tobo tree, the

tree of eternal bliss. It is said to resemble the

tree that stands at the right side of Allah in

paradise. Good fairies carry the great

sufferings and fears to this place, where they

are purified so that the sufferers will be freed

from their afflictions. (I. Shah 1994, 153 f.*)

The tobo tree is presumably some type of

psychoactive plant that was identified with the tree

of knowledge.