Witchy Reads: Weed Witch by Sophie Saint Thomas

After over thirty years of practice, it’s rare to find a book on witchcraft that has anything new to offer. I was excited to come across a copy of Weed Witch by Sophie Saint Thomas because, with so much changing legally and culturally around the use of marijuana, I thought it would offer exactly that: something new.

It did not.

There were so many things this book could have done. It could have provided a comprehensive history of cannabis, including how it came to be cultivated and used for medicinal/recreational purposes. It could have delved into the physical appearances of the plants and how different parts of the plants could be used in magick beyond ingestions. It could have looked at charms, symbolism, and color magick.

And that’s not to mention all the spells and sigils it could have included – because there’s more to weed magick than just “get stoned and have sex.”

Sophie Saint Thomas writes like someone who doesn’t take her craft seriously. Her idea of magick is nothing more than “manifesting” while high. Worse, she writes about weed like a giggly teenager who got high once and can’t stop bragging about it.

So… basically half the spoiled little white girls at Coachella.

No one is going to argue that manifestation is the most important part of magick – but manifesting without doing the real work is just a sloppy, ineffectual shortcut. Half-ass your magick and you get half-assed results.

Or worse.

Everything about Saint Thomas and her book screams “shortcut.” She describes her path as being the victim of sexual assault, attending black mass (eyeroll,) getting stoned, then becoming a witch.

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me?

Many of us are drawn to the craft because of a need to take control of our lives after trauma. There’s nothing wrong with that. There is plenty wrong, however, with turning to so-called black mass and drugs instead of getting professional help. Writing a book encouraging people to follow your footsteps without telling them to seek therapy first is just irresponsible.

If it sounds like I’m coming down hard on the author, it’s because I am. If you write an instructional book, you have a responsibility to ensure you are providing the best advice and the most correct information you can. Saint Thomas doesn’t even bother to draw distinct lines between things like Wicca, witchcraft, and Satanism. She is as reckless in her presentation of information as her writing suggests she is with her drug use.

Weed Witch starts with the basic assumption that the reader knows nothing about witchcraft but then fails to provide the basics needed to guide readers on their way. It would have been better if it had assumed at least a basic knowledge of the craft so it could have gone into more depth on marijuana. As it is, it just comes across
as frou-frou basic bitch shit. (You’ll notice I didn’t say “basic witch.” I won’t give her that much credit.)

I don’t know what makes the author qualified to teach others when she seems to know so little herself. She states things as facts backing them up, taking a “’Cause I said so!” approach to knowledge. Nowhere is this approach more noticeable than in the “Selected Sources” section at the end of the book. When you’re providing information
you gathered from so many other places and presenting it as absolute fact, better have a full bibliography.

Cite. Your. Damn. Sources.

Not just some of them.

And I’d better not see your own damned self listed in the biblio FIVE TIMES. That just stinks of RFK Jr using his own work to justify his crazy ass decisions.

Actually, everything about this book stinks. I haven’t disliked a book on witchcraft this much in a very long time. (I won’t even mention the other one because I don’t want to encourage anyone to go looking for it.) If you’re looking for a book that explores weed and its uses in witchcraft, look somewhere else. Weed Witch is just two hundred some pages of “Have you tried smoking a spliff then having an amazing orgasm?”