I go through lots of members pages and there are lots of "types" people tend to use to define themselves such as hedge witches or eclectic, but I have no idea what it means to be any of those things, anyone have insight they could share?
The word " Witch " as the same meaning as " Spell-caster ". It's basically what's called to people that are in to magic or the occult. Some call themselves " White Witches "; " Black Witches "; " Grey Witches "; etc.. the " color " changes according to what kind of magic they practice, " white " would be more as in shielding, healing etc.. " Black " would be more as in hexes/curses etc.. " Grey " would be a mix of the two.
" Eclectic "; " Wiccan "; " Pagan " etc.. are more connected to religion.
Eclecticism is basically saying I take what I want from different paths/religions and just make my own. Example: I like the idea of karma, but I do not prescribe to the idea of, "lord and lady". I like the idea of "turn the other cheek" but refuse to adhere to many other Christian ideals.
Wicca:This is a religion where you believe in The God and The Goddess or Lord and Lady, as well as karma. For clarification please understand that not all wiccans are witches. Witchcraft is just that, a craft. When people think, "magick" they automatically run to Wicca and conflate it to be the same thing. Magick/Witchcraft can be done inside of religion, but no religion or deity is actually necessary
Pagan: This is a blanket term which is all encompassing such as to say Christianity but then think of all the different branches within Christianity. Even Wiccans are technically Pagans. It is also important to note that many eclectics simply call them self pagan and leave off the eclectic part.
Paragraphs describing each religion were written by SilentSyren.
it's basically sub-categories of witchcraft. you study Wicca/Witchcraft, but you focus on something specific [kitchen witch, sea witch, hedge witch, eclectic wicca, celtic wicca, seax wicca] but it's just titles, you can call yourself anything if it feels right to you. i've jumped around through several labels in my studies [currently i teeter between 'eclectic' and 'seax wiccan' since my path is closest to seax wicca but there are some eclectic things that are my own]
i'm sure you can google it to get a complete list. is there a specific one you're interested in?