La rosa di Paracelso. Segreti e sacramenti

by William Leonard Pickard, Enrico Terrinoni (Translator), Fabio Pedone (Translator)

Un giovane studioso di Harvard, in qualche modo legato ai servizi segreti americani oltre che mosso da profonda curiosità intellettuale, indaga su un'organizzazione psichedelica che opera a livello mondiale. Ma se al governo interessa stroncare la produzione e la distribuzione delle sostanze psicotrope, il protagonista invece vuole avvicinarsi all'organizzazione per capire. Capire come è strutturata, che cosa si propone, chi la compone, quali sono le idee, le cerimonie, i sacerdoti, il messaggio. Dai templi del sapere - Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton - fino a Mosca, Zurigo, Bangkok e all'Afghanistan, incontrando via via i sei personaggi che la governano - ciascuno identificato con il nome di un colore -, il protagonista acquisisce a sua volta saggezza e visione, sperimenta il trip e l'iniziazione. Ma si trova anche coinvolto in oscure trame che, tra terrorismo e traffico di armi, si estendono sull'intero pianeta. Perché, se da un lato l'uso e la produzione di sostanze psichedeliche richiedono purezza di intenzioni e una moralità trasparente come il diamante, dall'altro il business coinvolge interessi economici e politici ad amplissimo raggio. Questo romanzo misterioso e fascinosissimo, che qualcuno ha definito, dopo l'LSD, la cosa più psichedelica che si può trovare su carta, è anche una sorta di "autobiografia psichedelica" perché racconta una storia vera, che è poi quella del suo autore, che la scrisse a matita su centinaia di foglietti sparsi durante i lunghi anni trascorsi in un carcere federale di massima sicurezza.

Genres: Fiction, Drugs, Philosophy, Spirituality, Literature, Religion, Alchemy

695 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

William Leonard Pickard, M.A. (Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, 1995) is a chemist and ordained Zen Buddhist priest who was deputy director of University of California, Los Angeles' Drug Policy Research Program prior to his third arrest on controlled-substance charges.

Pickard was sentenced to life without parole in 2003 for manufacturing large quantities of LSD. (He was granted "compassionate release" from federal prison in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, after serving 20 years of his sentence.) While incarcerated, Pickard turned to writing, producing the entirety of his first book, The Rose of Paracelsus, with pencil and paper.

Reviews

[Michael Townsand · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly uncommon and beautiful work. The experimental result of a memoir written as a transcendent psychedelic spy novel, mixed with universal love stories and real-life exposes of the lowest brutality and the highest beauty of human life, a lot of it in cultivated and learned classical and Victorian literary style.
Read up on the author's history before you read this. It will enrich your read greatly.

[V Migliarino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Must-Read Book! William Leonard Pickard’s “The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets and Sacraments”

Where has this guy been all our lives!?!?!!!

Few books have ever captivated my interest like Mr. Pickard’s “The Rose of Paracelsus: On Secrets and Sacraments.” The book is a palace, each chapter a room, you’re waltzing through the grand interiors of the authors dazzling mind. And I do mean dazzling! What brilliance! It is a pleasure to read and re-read. Its a work of art. Many passages will haunt you (in a good way).

Can you imagine the difficulty of writing a book like this from inside a prison cell and how torturous the journey must have been in getting it into print?

One has to look at 4 things: the author, the title, the narrative and the characters.

The author
I read online that William Leonard Pickard has been incarcerated since November 2000. His quandary is the result of the devastating consequences of huge forces at work. It takes a unique human and one of immense courage to write a book as beautiful as this. What stoicism and defiance. Mr. Pickard: write more books for us, please!

The title
Borges, the seminal Argentine literary figure, wrote a book called “The Rose of Paracelsus” and Pickard’s title is obviously a homage to that book with the addition of the phrase “On Secrets and Sacraments.” That is not a frivolous title and we are not dealing with some frivolous author. This author demonstrates a serious commitment to his craft and the title of his book hints at the storyline, immediately evoking an image of grand things shrouded in secrecy, of magic, of timeless alchemy, of floating castles and winged griffins and everything beautiful therein. Paracelsus was a real-life Swiss alchemist (occult chemist) during the Renaissance period. Borges’ story is about Paracelsus breathing new life into a dead rose.

The narrative
Mingling the art of storytelling with the real deal authentic experience, Mr. Pickard’s constellation of plot points (well-anchored and well-placed, i might add) forms a geometric hexagon and advances the story nicely. He manages to capture the elusive and supreme fascination of psychedelic states, which are supposedly notoriously difficult to distill into words. Yet, somehow in TROP, they are magically, richly evoked. Some readers, those who read in haste, may overlook the fine coherence of the writing and thereby not comprehend the careful intricacies. One must go slowly, to savor the phrasing, to feel the rhythms. I assure you, dear reader (from a fellow reader), TROP is anything but disjointed.

Gregorian chanting. The Red light of Antares. Diplomatic intrigues. LaMonsters at Harvard. Samsara. Chomolungma. Abeer the Orphan Girl of Nepal. Sapphic couples entwined. Advanced cognition. Love is All.

The characters
There are six chemists (the "Six"): one concerned with covert action, one with counter-surveillance using exotic models, one with ritual preparation of eucharists, one with new substances affecting libido, memory and learning, one infiltrating government agencies, and the sixth chemist ultimately never identified. And all the women of the Six: in Paris, Berlin, Bangkok, runway models, monastic nuns, medievalists, a feral and institutionalized little girl and her heartbreaking dance. Unforgettable, poignant.

The characters back stories are not fully-formed and yes this seems intentional. Our narrator remains mysterious and anonymous while The Six chemists he investigates remain shrouded in secrecy.

Conclusion
I see this entire book as a parable. One of devotion to a higher truth beyond samsara, beyond this illusion of “reality.” In Borges story, Paracelsus reconstitutes a rose from its own ashes. This act could be called a miracle. In Pickard’s story, the anonymous narrator, encounters a near-mythical group of real chemists who are trying to reconstitute the hearts of mankind from their own annihilation by using a magical substance to cure them of their blindness.

Isolating distinct themes in Pickard’s “The Rose” is no easy feat but there are many themes. This is an exceedingly complicated book laced with heavy symbolism: child’s heart (the opening of each chapter references a child or childhood innocence in some way), woman in distress (possibly represents Gaia, Mother Earth, being consumed by her infestation of dreary humans), salvation (in the form of cortical evolution).

Overall, I found reading Pickard’s “The Rose” to be an immersive and irresistibly engrossing experience. Hopefully this book achieves the serious attention and appreciation that it deserves. And hopefully our Mr. Pickard writes more books! I will read and re-read all of them many times!

[Nick Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok so first off, does anyone have a copy which does *not* identify itself as an Advance Reader Copy? it doesn't seem that a first edition actually exists. even looking at amazon now, look at the back cover -- ARC for sure. this is frustrating, as the last page reads "Revised ARC -- This second edition of the advance edition will be followed by a First Edition, and a second volume of new and related material containing substantive scientific illustrations related to the narrative." i very much want these additional materials!

there are two pages devoted to a complete and at times word-for-word ripoff of Asimov's 1956 short story "The Last Question" (which i only know because said short story was also retold in Kaku's Hyperspace, which i don't recommend by any means, but had great currency among my high school clique). it is presented without citation nor reference, which seems a bit of dirty pool.

there are some grotesque scientific errors; one i remember from the last fifty pages or so was referring to bright, hot Type O stars as living much longer than our Type G sun (in truth, burning hotter almost always results in shorter star lifetime). they probably won't ruin it for everyone, but they were annoying, especially given Pickard's highbrow pretensions. also, from the last pages, Skinner probably *waved* cash, as opposed to *waiving* it. anyway!

alright, Pickard is a hero, let's get that out of the way first. my first LSD was consumed in the form of three black pyramid gelcaps in the fall of 1996, when i was 15. having no expectations, i placed them under my tongue on the long ride home towards the northern Atlanta suburbs (as it turns out, I grew up not far at all from Pickard's stomping grounds, separated by about twenty miles and thirty-five years; we were named "most intellectual" by the same county's school system) and emerged in another dimension, straining all that unending night to hold my shit together around my mother and sisters. i was an immediate convert, and easily ate several thousand doses over the next ten years, probably well over ten thousand. the quality and availability of LSD took a nosedive straight into the shitter around 2000 (the time of Pickard's Kansas bust, we'd find out later). clean and ecstatic liquid had been readily available in any amounts one wanted for less than $80 per hundred-dose, 5mL bottle. then suddenly it was not available at any price, and could be found only lurchingly and infrequently for several years. reliable, ready volumes of LSD-25 have not (to the best of my knowledge) been available until this last decade, when another hero, Ross William Ulbricht, resolved the problem through darknet bazaars. since then, Russian-produced 25 flows like holy water.

and he's a classy, smart, good guy. that much is obvious. he's something of an overwrought horndog as well, but hey, he was in prison for twenty years whilst writing this, and i'd likely be horny as hell too. still, the utter lack of agency on the part of any female character in this book does smell pretty bad in 2022 (is a single woman introduced without commenting on her heels, skirt, and hair? i too appreciate these things, Pickard, but c'mon).

the book opens better than it has any excuse to be, and i thought i was in for a real treat. it never sank to the level of crap, but it did lose a lot of gas. pickard suffers from that same disease which afflicts all who subscribe to Eastern religious hogwash--his talk loses its tether to reality, slips into the transmundane vocabulary of the meaningless, and eventually reads like a sunday school service or a bit of government bonhomie. do the Six never fart, pickard? do they never cut themselves and say "awww fuckin' asshole i cut myself"? do they eat anything other than "small amounts of nuts and fruits, intently and with purpose." while we're on that topic, you know who you're supposed to dislike in this book pretty easily, because they have a BMI exceeding 4 or so. all evil characters are fat; all fat characters are evil. i get it, you're a cross-country runner and a vegetarian and would give a little lecture rather than having a Newport to loan me, but try to be a bit less like a corporate training video in terms of signalling failed virtue.

some of the language is quite beautiful, and i very much enjoyed his expansive knowledge of art and architecture, two areas where i can always stand to learn more.

alright, here's my real beef with the book: i expected some "action shots" as they were from Pickard's Greatest Cooks, some notes worth reading regarding clandestine chemistry, the kind of precious operational details that Pickard probably knows better than any living man (poor old Shulgin having died several years ago). alas, not a single one. no talk of the recent bioreactor-based methods to which *Pickard actually alludes* in his 2008 paper "International LSD Prevalence – Factors Affecting Proliferation and Control." no talk of various total syntheses public and patented decades ago. i get it, the man's surely hesitant to piss anyone off after getting his compassionate release two years ago (Hail Eris!), but toss us a freakin' bone!

ps hey aphrodine1, reply to my mail!

[Marjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been lurking through my Amazon recommendations for weeks but since reviews and information were scarce and the price was quite high, I was hesitant to give it a try until one good offer came around. And boy am I glad to have taken it.

It is one of the strangest and weirdest books I've ever read, it is also one of the most beautiful ones too. But not without problems, though. So let's dissect it, hopefully without giving away any spoilers.

1. Story
It promises to be somewhat like a detective novel and to some extent it is. Yet it is much more than that, or should I say - it is anything but typical. It goes beyond any classification, but if one is forced to give it a label, it could be rated as such.

2. Style
This is perhaps the strongest part of the book. It borders poetry, it is beautiful and a pleasure to read. The book comes with an advice to read it slowly and not without a good reason. So please, take time to read it. Enjoy it like a Japanese tea ceremony. Let it soak into your soul like a breath of fresh air... Just enjoy it.

3. Narrative arc
Here's where I begin to have some problems. It takes of like a rocket, drags you in and the first 100 or so pages are really an amazing experience. It promises an amazing journey and to some degree it does deliver it, but not as much as promised, because after that it becomes somewhat flat. Things are happening but they are not really pushing the story much forward. It just an seemingly endless addition of events, conversations, trips, locations that didn't intrigue nor satisfy me as a reader... The last 100-150 pages, when the story lands down, are brilliant again. In a way that is because the last part is liberated from two of the following sets of problems. (Also; the part about Alexander Shulgin is a beautiful homage, but how does it fit the whole story?)

4. Characters
There are two groups of people that repeatedly appear: "The Six" chemists that are at the centre of our attention and another five colleagues that appear in Harvard's chapters. In my mind (and I'd like to hear other opinions on the matter) all of them seem rather flat, blank or 'template characters', in effect quite hard to distinguish among each other. Especially the Six appear all the same, like one character in six incarnations.

5. References
The medium part of the book (some 400 pages), and especially the Harvard chapters are densely packed with all sorts of musical, artistic, political, literary, scientific, historical and other references. Harvard characters can't even cross the yard without invoking at least two episodes from school's famous history. Yes, it makes Harvard seem much more picturesque, alive and easier to envision for a reader, but please, not every stone has a story or is connected with something we should be informed about. It is too much and ti drags our attention away from the story and its characters. If one wants to know Harvard's history there are other sources to consult. The chapters that happen in various cities across the world are also packed with similar references too, but most of them are quite well known ones (tourist attractions, museums, paintings, public places...). This can be somewhat demanding on the reader, don't you think? It makes you feel extremely smart (if you know them) or extremely stupid (if you don't). But most importantly; it fills the story with unnecessary ballast... some references are OK, but I believe this is slightly too much. The focus should be on the over-arching mysteries, mystique, characters, story-plot... that is the true quality of this book.

The book ends with a note that this is still a beta version and that first edition is yet to be released. Which kinda makes sense. Throughout the book I kept thinking that although the book is really great, it would be SO MUCH BETTER with some proper editing which it now lacks. The parts are there, they only need to be connected into a more coherent sum which will transcend them individually. With that done, it has potential for a truly remarkable work.

[Richie Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Rose," as devoted readers refer to this exceptional work - is already a modern classic among the psychedelic community. It contains unparalleled descriptions of altered states of consciousness, based on interviews with an elite group dedicated to the transformation of our species through pharmacology and spiritual practice. Unique to The Rose is the strength of the middle portion, the extremes of which increases in intensity throughout the writing. It challenges the reader with the complexity of thought and feelings and perceptions. It never stops.

Beautifully edited, as befits the delicacy of the wordcraft. Stockholm art critic Henrik Dahl said it well: The Rose is "for psychedelically-inclined lovers of finely crafted literature." Contemporary literary analyst Nese Devenot, an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Humanities, considers The Rose "a work of quality and importance." Goodreads readers are advised to approach The Rose slowly, though, rather than hurrying to review, for skimming is inappropriate to the grace of this writing. As Dahl remarked, The Rose is "destined to be misunderstood by hasty readers."

Narrative:

The Rose is a personal memoir like no other. We find ourselves among tribal warriors at the Tajikistan border, entwined with Sapphic models in medieval exorcisms of addicts, within the elegant academic seminars at Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, and the Institute for Advance Study, lost in heated desert nights and brothels and sable orgasms of Afghanistan, confronting cool and resolute Russian MVD drug officials, and rescuing a tragic orphan girl in the slums of Kathmandu.

Characters:

We visit the worldwide clandestine LSD laboratories of the Six: the six chemists interviewed from jungle estates in southern Thailand to the monasteries of Kyoto, while we encounter their gifted women - those who possess advanced cognitive skills. Each of the Six speaks in classical language, as though they were one, and perhaps they are ("We are one organism ..."). Of the Harvard students, to which we gratefully return after stunning events with the Six, we find the campus changed along with our perception of reality. Each stone is imbued with histories, each garden with procreating gods.

Readers may miss subtleties and fine relationships until the second read. The Harvard students are not a separate story, but extensions and operatives of the Six. One is so eager to learn more of the Six, one might not realize their tradecraft even in Cambridge.

Approaching The Rose:

It is not a detective story, not touristic. It is a demanding work, with heightened rewards, perhaps the Ulysses of psychedelia. I have read and re-read The Rose in its entirety thrice, and single favorite chapters many times. Much will be overlooked on a first pass. Reading takes about 20 hours, perhaps an hour per chapter or less in a quiet place with no distractions. Take a month to read The Rose, or one chapter a day. A eager friend in New Zealand managed it in his shower, overnight and in 14 hours. The writing is best savored slowly, though, like one's lover.

Intriguing Origins:

Another reviewer (Arno) suggested reading of the author's background first to enhance the experience even more, and to understand how and why The Rose was written. Without giving away the joy and pathos of that exploration and discovery by curious readers, I can say The Rose was written by pencil, under the most brutal circumstances, by one of the most isolated individuals in the world. It is a voice you've never heard before, singing a most beautiful song.

- RR

[Isham Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

From what I understand of William Leonard Pickard's background, he was trained as a chemist (after an aborted first semester at Princeton as an undergraduate) and spent most of his years manufacturing LSD (ultimately in an abandoned nuclear missile silo in Kansas) and moving within that milieu, while dipping into more academic study here and there, including several fruitful years at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. His publications are limited to a few scientific and governmental policy articles on drugs and the drug trade. Meanwhile, a good portion of his life (25+ years) was spent in prison for a drug-conspiracy charge. He claims to have written The Rose entirely with pencil and paper during his last period of incarceration and published it in 2016 (he was finally freed in 2020).

Without a background in literary studies, however, either academically or as a literary author with decades of experience in the craft or prior relevant publications, how in the hell then was Pickard able to write a book of such literary accomplishment, lexical breadth and allusiveness, and stylistic assuredness?

The Rose moreover contains innumerable minutely rendered, almost encyclopedic, accounts of scenes in far-flung spots around the world, down to exact descriptions of clothing, decor, flora and landscapes, which he seems to have been able to call up at will in his prison cell. This is beyond the ability of a mere photographic memory, which tends to be indiscriminate in its cataloging of detail. But the Rose records precisely those details demanded by his narrative. I cannot see how Pickard was able to access all of this information. Federal prisons don’t allow unrestricted or unsupervised use of the internet, and he was likely limited to email. Undoubtedly his many friends and contacts would have been mailing some of the information he required, but could not possibly have supplied everything he needed to write this book.

Perhaps, with the vast time on his hands in prison, his mind grew to comparable vastness, enabling and feeding his monumental vision--sweeping hallucinatory landscapes that enact rather than merely mimic the LSD experience, undergirded by profound Buddhist wisdom and all rendered in the most beautiful, inimitable prose--enriched from long acquaintance with entheogens, and he filled in all the requisite details through the powers of imagination alone, even if not everything was accurate and possibly made up out of whole cloth?

While a more skeptically minded person might suspect The Rose was collaboratively written (with a ghostwriter or writers, or an editor so thorough as to blur the line between editorship and authorship), and Pickard was generously allowed to claim sole authorship, nonetheless, I must give him benefit of the doubt and regard him as the sole author of his amazing literary creation. As for specifics about the book, please have a look at other reviews. The book is too large and capacious for me to go into any more detail here without turning this review itself into a book.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stunningly beautiful piece of writing. Drawing a veneer of fiction on his biography, Pickard describes a haunting narrative of academic research encountering otherworldly subjects. Recommended for anybody who: is interested in Pickard’s life; fancies detailed, almost antiquated, prose; and wants a challenging read.

[Jake Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parts 1-5 would be a five star novel, easily. Amazing writing. After thinking about it, have to give it a four stars overall for parts 6-7. Part 7 seems to exist to tell his story of what happened at the end but it's (a) horrifying content and (b) bolted-on to the main story. Really wish some of the images from part 7 weren't what lingered for me from this book.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't properly express my enjoyment of this book in words. It is so many things at once: a fantastic, Borgesian tale of mystery and wonder, a travelogue of the exotic and inaccessible, a catalogue of the horrors of modern society, a guide map to a hopeful future. You should read this book.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extremely poetically written book. There were certainly parts which were very interesting, but some parts were too eclectic for me to appreciate the gestalt of the whole.

[Mycoriongmail.Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mystical read.. must read. Must read

[Eric Hendrickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is alright surley inspired by
Eugene Seaich's THE FAR-OFF Land (An Attempt At a Philosophical Evaluation of the Hallucinogenic Drug Experience) is a gem of a book which is short enough to be read in a day and with enough substance to feed the reader's head and soul for a lifetime. Written over 50 years ago, this little known work is now seeing the light of day and has all the attributes of becoming a classic of psychedelic literature. Connecting with eloquent style and sensitivity the portals of psychology, philosophy, cultural anthropology and spirituality, Seaich discusses and brings closer to our access an awareness of a "far-off land" whose essence is both dream and primal human identity. Poets and religions only offer a small glimpse of such a place while our psyche thirsts for its often forgotten nurturance. We are fortunate that Eugene's grandson Eric Hendrickson has surfaced the FAR-OFF LAND and I invite everyone interested in understanding a higher calling to reflect on the text which also can be of expansive help in navigating to those ports of our long lost homeland.
https://bit.ly/3WhdStc

[Billy Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly engrossing modern masterpiece, and a book that the reader will find expanding in both a figurative and literal way. quite simply, there's nothing like it. breathtaking in its scope and intelligence, it never condescends, and often uplifts. there are many instances where the reader will take in a particular passage, and then be moved to put the book down for a minute and gaze into space, absorbing and savoring the images that have just been transmitted and installed.

and the theme of this book is unique, as the author paints a vivid picture of a very special "conspiracy" in action, a conspiracy that has nothing less than the redemption and redirection of the human species as its ultimate goal.

pretty darn cool! and a book to be read slowly, and then, upon conclusion, to be read a second time. to those who already read The Rose, but only once, i encourage you to pick it up and do it again. the second time, you will quickly find, will be as richly rewarding as the first. if not more so!

[さやか むらさと · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prison sucks, but its isolation helps with self-reflection.

I love the If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves.

In this book...everything is bathed in a ghost light of dimensionless obsolescence.

[Mikal · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - the first few chapters were engrossing due to some rich imagery. However, after a while the language got tiring, and the narrative just seemed to flow around the main character. The women in the novel tend to be very flat, one-dimensional, and in many cases have no dialogue despite their supposed importance. It's a sad reflection on the gender dynamics in the psychedelic community, but it's unfortunately not an intentional one.

[Anika Gurbani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most verbose descriptive account of WLP's interactions with reverent, transcendental LSD chemists. Seeing the religiosity of the people producing and distributing this drug makes you respect their craft so much more. The imagery is so vivid and easily one of the best books I've ever read.

[Nuno Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was hard to read, not much to engage and when that happened the portions were small. One cannot dine on prose alone. The real book exists behind the narrative. A book about the author and his humanity.
I would recommend even if it doesn't suit me.

[Steinbjörn Jónsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic telling of the psychadelic imagery and insight into the life of William Leonard Pickard.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional, the book of life

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible

[Avery Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this tome. I rarely read fiction but found myself unable to put this down, despite its density, arcane vocabulary, and ambiguous transitions between reality and altered states.