This question is very interesting to me. As a skeptic and an atheist with deist leanings, I try to refrain from attributing human emotions to the universe, but I certainly understand the practicality of trying to relate to the universe on your own terms. Therefore, I have no problem with creating a human image or "god" to represent the creative force of the universe, as long as one does not take it too seriously.
As concerns pagans, I guess my quesition is therefore always this: Do you believe that that avatars/deities that you pray to are actual entities, or do you perceive them as human-created images/icons that help you concentrate on and contemplate the create force of the universe, which they represent?
In other words, are you a true polytheist (one who believes in many gods), or a pantheist (one who believes that the universe is infused with "godliness")?
Is this for me?
I know thatthe avatars/deities that I used to pray are actual and not human.
Let me tell you what I know myself. I am not talking of belief but knowledge. God is unknown quanitity. Nobody knows him/her except the enlightened ones who have become one with him/her. God created all these deities for a particular work. All are assigned work. God is in all of us. Universe is God. If you care to read Vedanta, you will understand how this was logically arrived at thousands of year ago.
They took everything- say, sun, and asked is this God? The answer was no. They took everything one by one and all the answers were no. In Sanscrit we say- Neti, Neti- No, No.
Then what is God? If no single object is God, then all objects are God. pl. read Vedanta for further analysiis. I can not explain this at all on this forum.