How to define a grimoire within the grimoire tradition?
Defining what makes a text a grimoire is not as obvious as it might seem. I will try to explain what defines a grimoire in the traditional grimoire tradition. A couple of things need to be taken in to concern such as when the grimoire was written, the content of the grimoire, where it was written and other considerations.
If we start with the time of when it was written we can say that most grimoires were written down somewhere between the years 1200-1899. Some are earlier then that like the Testament of Solomon and the Sword of Moses which at least I count to the grimoire tradition. Newer grimoires fall under the category of modern grimoires. An example of that is The Mystic Grimoire of Mighty Spells and Rituals. It might become a classic grimoire one day but so far it does not belong to the grimoire tradition.
Most grimoires have a list of demons and/or angels that you can summon. They also usually hold a system on how to summon these entities. Another part of most grimoires is the so called experiments. Usually rather straight forward magic that when done will give you things like a flying carpet, a hand of glory or women will show up in your home. Some grimoires contain all three but most grimoires perhaps has one or two of these parts.
It can also be of importance of how we can trace the grimoires back in time and to what tradition we trace them to. Many of the grimoires have a traceable line within the Solomonic tradition for example. That is not true for all grimoires though. Picatrix for example stands out quite a bit from most other texts we call grimoires.
Some of us argue if for example the work of Agrippa is actually a grimoire or just a book on magic. Same goes for Francis Barrett’s The Magus. Some acknowledge Agrippa but not Barrett since they consider his book The Magus to be a rip off from Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.
Then there is alot of books that tie in to the grimoire tradition that gives us information about it but are not grimoires in them self. Like the different religious texts surrounded the grimoires. Books like A E Waite's The book of Black Magic or Idries Sha's The Secret Lore of Magic. Others gives us clues as a possible origin of the grimoires like the Greek Magical Papyrus, Egyptian scriptures, Sumerian Scriptures and so on. They are still not grimoires though.
What is Grimoire Magic?
Grimoire magic is a term that is seldom used since most people that today uses grimoires do that within another magic system. For example we can take hermetic or LHP magicians working with the Key of Solomon or the Lemegeton. Both of these grimoires includes a complete system of magic in them self that is then disregarded from. Grimoire magic is when you use the system described in the grimoires. There are grimoires that do not have a complete system included and in those cases you look for clues in the text and also compare to other similar texts of that time and use a suitable system from one of those instead.
Grimoire magic is basically two different systems. One is a system to evoke demons or invoke angels using a list of names usually supplied by the Grimoire it self. Each Grimoire do this a little different and use different tools. When you have mastered the Grimoire’s own system you can start to experiment and make your own system. The other system used is more of a sympathetic magic type and often deal with problems that were common in the times when the Grimoire’s were written. Typical examples are cures for life stock but also things like protection against the “evil eye”. This part is also often referred to as the “experiments” of the Grimoire’s.
Some people will now argue and say it is medieval or renascence magic but that is still not totally correct. First of all the grimoires span over a very long period of time. We know that among the earliest grimoires began to spread in the 12th century. Some much earlier than that and if we go by myth the Key of Solomon is supposed to be the magic that King Solomon practiced and if that is true the origins of the grimoires are much older. Another example is the 6th and 7th book of Moses that Moses supposedly received on the mountain of Sinai. Also I think that calling it grimoire magic is a much better description of what you are actually doing since during these times tons of other systems have also been used. I mean hermetic magic existed during both the medieval and renascence time periods and no one calls that anything else then simply hermetic magic. Ceremonial magic can mean pretty much anything today.
You can of course argue and say that we do not need another term for a magic style and that is fine with me. I will not force anyone to adopt my thinking. This is the way I have thought about it since I started and I will continue to refer to it as grimoire magic. Also it shows my way of doing things and the theory behind it that might not always fit in the other magic schools ideas.
Here are some links to what David Rankine says on this that might be of interest.
http://wicca.avalonia.co.uk/?page_id=359
http://wicca.avalonia.co.uk/?page_id=349