What Is a Grimoire?
On Spell Books, Research Notebooks, and Knowledge Collected Over a Lifetime
When people hear the word grimoire, many imagine an ancient leather-bound book filled with mysterious symbols and secrets preserved through generations.
The truth is that many of them really do look like that, and others are no less fascinating.
The word grimoire did not originate within the world of magic. It comes from the Old French word grammaire, meaning grammar or a book of learning. During the Middle Ages, when most people could not read, and manuscripts were rare and expensive, books were considered remarkable objects. Over time, the word came to describe books containing hidden, esoteric, or magical knowledge, eventually becoming the common term for books of magic.
A related term often encountered today is Book of Shadows. This much more modern expression became popular in contemporary witchcraft traditions during the twentieth century and is typically used to keep a personal record of rituals, experiences, and spiritual practice.
In earlier times, the people who practiced religion, medicine, and magic were often the same. These three fields were deeply intertwined, and many magical books were also medical texts that incorporated religious elements. For this reason, the grimoire began as a book of knowledge. Only later, as these disciplines gradually became separated, did it evolve into what we now think of as a book of magic.
Interestingly, even today, in cultures where shamans still play an important role, such as parts of South America, religion, healing, and magic are often practiced as interconnected aspects of the same tradition.
Long Before the Word Grimoire
The idea of collecting spiritual knowledge in written form is almost as old as writing itself.
In ancient Egypt, papyri were written containing prayers, blessings, ritual instructions, and sacred symbols. In the Greek and Roman worlds, texts were compiled on astrology, medicinal plants, amulets, and various forms of ritual practice.
One of the most fascinating sources from this period is the collection now known as the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM).
These are a group of papyrus texts discovered primarily in Egypt during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, having survived for centuries in the dry desert climate. Most were written between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE, during a period when Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures deeply influenced one another. The texts offer a remarkable glimpse into the everyday magical practices of the ancient world.
Within their pages, one can find prayers, amulets, healing requests, protective rituals, dream work, invocations of deities, the use of plants, contemplative exercises, and much more.
I have been studying these papyri for years, and one of the things I find most compelling about them is that they allow us to encounter real people from the ancient world, their beliefs, their questions, their hopes, their fears, and their search for meaning.
Some of the ideas found within the papyri remain inspiring even today. Certain recipes and magical practices can still be performed using materials that are readily available, such as natural substances, pottery fragments, gold, silver, and other traditional materials. Others belong entirely to the historical world in which they were written and involve substances or techniques that would be considered illegal or unacceptable today, including the use of human remains.
One of the most remarkable moments in my own research came when I encountered a protective spell within these ancient texts that closely resembled one my grandmother had taught me as part of our family tradition. Across nearly two thousand years, through different cultures and languages, I found echoes of practices that had survived and continued to be passed from one generation to the next.
Like any ancient source, these texts invite us to learn, understand, and reflect. What fascinates me most is the opportunity to see how people engaged with spirituality nearly two thousand years ago.
The Personal Library of the Soul
Throughout history, many grimoires were not famous books preserved in palaces or temples, they were personal books.
Notebooks belonging to healers, astrologers, priestesses, researchers, and ordinary people who wished to preserve knowledge that mattered to them.
Sometimes they contained prayers and rituals, lists of plants, and observations of dreams. Often, they contained all of these things together.
When reading many historical grimoires, one quickly discovers that they resemble an instruction manual, a personal journal, and a research archive all at once.
My Grimoire Is Not My Notebook
Over the years, I have developed a clear distinction between my grimoire and my study notebooks.
My grimoire is a working book.
It is the place where spells, rituals, prayers, recipes, and practices are preserved after they have been studied, tested, and found worthy of becoming part of my permanent collection.
Alongside it sit many other notebooks.
In them, I gather knowledge, research, sources, philosophy, mythology, ideas, questions, and insights that emerge throughout my studies. I often think of them as my research laboratory. Some entries remain exactly as they were when first written, some continue to develop over many years, and only a small portion eventually finds its way into the grimoire.
In a sense, the grimoire is the result, the notebooks are the journey.
The grimoire contains what I do, the notebooks contain what I investigate.
Why Do People Still Write by Hand?
In an age when thousands of documents can be stored in the cloud, notebooks and journals continue to accompany people around the world.
Perhaps because there is something profound about writing by hand.
It slows the pace.
It invites attention.
It connects thought, memory, and movement.
Research in psychology and neuroscience suggests that handwriting encourages deeper processing of information while strengthening both memory and personal connection to what is being recorded.
When we write something by hand, we give it a place.
Perhaps this is one reason writing has always held a special role in spiritual traditions. Through writing, something intangible becomes tangible. Thoughts become words. Ideas become symbols. Inner experiences take physical form upon the page.
In many ways, this reflects one of the most fundamental definitions of manifestation itself: the movement of something from the realm of thought, spirit, or possibility into physical reality.
Together with the desire to preserve meaningful things, document knowledge gained through study and experience, capture an idea before it is forgotten, and pass something forward, I believe this is why grimoires continue to be written today.
They answer a very ancient human need: to gather what matters to us, and to create a home for it.
If you enjoy working with grimoires, you may also enjoy The Witch’s Grimoire, a growing collection of practical spell cards and magical practices from The Witch’s Room, included in each monthly letter.
—
Eynav Kliger, PhD
Letters From The Witch’s Room ✨📖🌿
