Different brand of pagan

[H3athybaby]

I'm new to the idea of paganism and I can't seem to find good information on the Google and I have noticed that there are different brands, I guess, of pagan. Neo-pagan or eclectic and others and I was just wondering what the differences in each category of pagan.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Different brand of pagan

A person could spend a month on this question, and still provide an incomplete answer.

Imagine all religions of the past, then, add to that all the possible variations of those, then add all the possible modern interpretations of those religions, then add an infinite variety of new religions, and all their possible interpretations of those religions, and toss in a few dozen handfuls of new age-y things, and you'll be getting close to an answer... which will be close to infinity.

A better way to go about it (IMHO) is to ask yourself what it is that you believe, then go with that.

Odds are that you'll run into somebody with similar ideas sooner or later.

Here's what I think I can tell you, though, to get started (but it is way incomplete):

Eclectic: mixes different traditions
Reconstructionist: intends to re-create a historic tradition
Polytheist: more than one god/goddess
Hard polytheist: gods/goddesses are literal entities
Soft (?) polytheist: gods/goddesses not literal entities - symbolic or archetypes
Monotheist: one god/goddess - can also be hard or soft
Pragmatic: what works, works, what doesn't, doesn't
Theoretical: what is, is - whether it works or not

I'm betting that someone who is better at categorical thinking than I am will come along eventually and add to the list...