Living the Individual Journey: The Mystical Life

ABSTRACT

Audrey Punnett interviews Sheila O’Handley about the mystical experience she had at the age of fifteen that began her journey into the religious life, first as a Sister of St. Martha, and later as a professed hermit in the Roman Catholic Church in first Newfoundland and then Nova Scotia, Canada. An introduction to Jung’s work confirmed her mystical experience and led her into analysis and the process of individuation. She speaks of an informed living faith integrated with the wholeness of Jung’s ideas. The interview explores the Trinity and the Assumption through Catholic and Jungian lenses as well as the power of dreams in announcing soul shifts and life changes.

KEY WORDS:

• analysis
• the Annunciation
• the Assumption
• Divinity
• eremitical life
• God consciousness
• hermit
• Jung
• mysticism
• Roman Catholic Church
• the Trinity

NOTE

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Audrey Punnett

SHEILA O’HANDLEY, BA, BED, BST, MDIV, MA, is a professed hermit in the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is a trained spiritual director and counselor with a Jungian orientation. She is a lover of nature, enjoying her walks in the woods and along the three beaches available to her. Besides being a good cook, she and her soul friend, Claudette Gallant, Sister of St. Martha, make delicious pumpkin jam. Correspondence: [email protected].

AUDREY PUNNETT, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with diplomas in Adult Analytical Psychology and Child and Adolescent Analytical Psychology from the C. G. Jung Institute, Zürich. She is a member of the Association of Graduates in Analytical Psychology and the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. A registered play therapist and supervisor and clinical and teaching member of the Sandplay Therapists of America (STA) as well as the International Society of Sandplay Therapists (ISST), she served as past president of STA and is currently vice president of the America’s for ISST. She is an associate professor at UCSF and lectures nationally and internationally on Jungian psychology and sandplay therapy. She has been published in peer-reviewed journals and contributed book chapters on play therapy and sandplay therapy. Her book The Orphan: A Journey to Wholeness (2014) and an edited volume Jungian Child Analysis (2018) were published by Fisher King Press. An edited book Jungian Child Analysis: Cultural Perspectives was published by the Analytical Psychology Press (2022). She is an Anusara-inspired registered yoga instructor and enjoys gardening and movies in her spare time. Correspondence: [email protected].