I'm new to the site as of yesterday, and I keep hearing the word path, I don't really know what that means. What kind of paths are there? And what are they about? This knowledge would greatly satisfy me. Thank you!
Welcome, first thing you need to do is go to the tab marked Articles and read all the newbie information. That's where I started, from there you can go to so much information. Read read and read some more. You will find the answer to your questions there. I've found you're best to read about it and then you can ask more specific questions.
There are so many paths it would be impossible to make a full list but here are some more common ones I have seen:
There are eclectics who take what they want of things and put them together as they see fit. There are Wiccans who believe in the dualtheism of The God and The Goddess. There is an insane amount of different types of Wiccans. Even Dianic Wicca and Christian Wicca which are said to not be, "real Wicca" but they exist. There are of course Christian witches who believe that part about, "no witchcraft" in the bible was eiher mistranslated, or believe in Jesus Christ but not the bible specifically. The reason why they are not thought to be, "true Wicca" is Christianity is monotheism, not dualtheism. There are multiple sects of Heathenery which focuses on the Norse parthenon of deities making Heathenery polytheism.
Much like Hellenic Polytheism also known as Hellemos which focuses on the Greek parthenon. Some would say Greek and Roman making it Greco-Roman. But the difference is some believe the Greek and Roman deities to be the same, some think they are completely seprate and different deities entirely. There of course Agnostic/Atheistic witches. They don't believe in a higher power but practice magick without religion. Some simply don't believe in gods. Some do not believe in gods or spirits. I have also seen some practitioners who say magick is working with spirits and if it's not spirit work you're just, "wishing really hard."
So this shows the point in how different people interpret witchcraft/magick/metaphysics differently. There is also Kermetism which is again, polytheistic. This focuses on the Eqyptian parthenon. There of course Eastern practices too such as Buddism and Shinto. There are Native American practices but they are a closed tradition by invite only. Then there is Celtic practitioners and the list just goes on and on. Also side note, not everyone who practices magick likes being refered to as a witch. Some prefer practitioner. some prefer pagan, some prefer viking or heathen lol. By the way to clarify, the above is what I have seen, heard, and read. I wish to present it unbiasly.
The above is a good breakdown of some common paths. Again (as is mentioned above), it would be impossible to list every path in the world, since there are so many and people often develop their own.
To define path: I suppose there are some different ways people could. I would define it as a person's chosen spiritual or religious beliefs and moral code. For example, Baptism is a path. There are certain rules and beliefs that Baptists are supposed to uphold, such as praying to one god. Wicca is a path, and has beliefs such as magick and rules such as the Threefold Law. Eclectic Pagans follow a path of their own, by combining beliefs and regulations of various other paths.
