But the traditions we have looked at are all ancient and stem from a world view which is radically different from how we see the world today. So now let us look at a contemporary example from a very different way of looking at the world - that of New Age. Many people today who feel a spiritual hunger are attracted to New Age because much of what it offers fills a void often left unsatisfied by established religious institutions. One of the New Age gurus, Louise Hay, says this: 'My first thoughts on awakening before I open my eyes are to be grateful for everything I can think of ... I spend about ten minutes just being thankful for all the good in my life ... This is before I get up and do my morning meditation and prayers ... As I go to bed, I collect my thoughts. I go over the events of the day and bless each activity ... '

So ir is quite significant that people who feel a genuine yearning for a deeper spirituality, for something that will touch their hearts and for a way of making sense of a confusing and sometimes alienating world are encouraged by their New Age gurus to follow a practice as traditional and orthodox as prayer at morning and evening. Perhaps this desire to turn to some all-powerful Being at significant moments in the day and the year - here is the New Age celebration of the Winter Solstice at Stonehenge - can be seen as a need to return to a more sacramental understanding of life ...

 ... and possibly even the trends present in some New Age and neopagan rites where the earth itself becomes the object of worship and is believed to be the source of spiritual power may be a symptom of a muddled desire to reattain this sacramental understanding of creation which was so much part of earlier Christian belief.