I'm a lone practioner, not good karma with gurus and groups. I like to learn from examples, manuals, howto's, etc. And practice from them to see how things work and why. Could you tell me if there's something akin to grimoires in the Varjayana tradition?

Well, as I said in an earlier post, there are books of magic within the Vajrayana tradition.

HOWEVER

You cannot learn Vajrayana from books. You can try some techniques out, but unless you have a Guru and an Enpowerment you are not practicing Vajrayana. This is vital to understand. You may get some benefit from borrowing some tech, and that is something that i actually encourage, but you are not a Tantrika without a Guru and an Abhisheka. They tradition is built upon that bedrock.

It is similar to the situation of a Catholic Priest. You can say all the Mass's in the world, but unless you have the Apostolic Succession given by a Bishop you are not a Priest.

None of this has to do with the result BTW. You can attain enlightenment without a teacher, do magic without a teacher, and evolve spiritually without a teacher. You cannot however do those things as a Tantrika or a Priest without the proper creds.

Think of it this way: you can heal people with your amazing knowledge of medicine that you learned from books, but unless you have gone through an accredited med schools and passed the necessary requirements you are not an M.D.

Ask me anything