The Way, The Truth, The Life: What Your First Memory Reveals About Your Soul’s Journey

What if your earliest memory held the blueprint of your soul's journey? What if the moment you first remember of yourself marks not just awareness—but a spiritual awakening that still shapes your life?

Steiner’s View: The Sacred Tasks of Early Childhood

Rudolph Steiner, a philosopher, architect, and father of Waldorf Education stated that we are wisest in the first three years of life. It is during this time that our previous life essence is still working through us and we are carefree in our expression and experiences. It is during our first three years that we are living unconsciously and accomplish amazing tasks in our development. These amazing spiritual tasks are that we learn to walk on our own, learn a language, we develop the ability to think and have thoughts.

We take these ideas for granted in our lives.

Let's move further into Steiner's worldview and see what we think.

1. Walking: Finding Our Way

There is an inner striving, curiosity, anticipation of a parent waiting for their child to learn to walk. What is this? Is this some deep internal instinct we know that this is a new beginning for our child? Only we have stopped being aware of these moments. Yet every parent anticipates it, waits for it. Could there be something spiritual about being able to stand on your own two feet?

As a baby, we orient our body in space by ourselves. No one makes us walk. WE develop this skill by getting up and falling down many times. Walking is an aspect of our humanity.

Our soul establishes the relationship to space and shapes the way we move and the energy we carry. If you ever try to pretend to walk and be someone else you can feel the difference in your body. It's because the way a person moves represents their soul life.(page 10)

“In the early years of life we learn out of the spirit, first, to walk—that is, we learn, under the guidance of the spirit, to find our way in earthly life. “ (Steiner, p. 15)

2. Speaking: Expressing Truth

Steiner says that we need to develop our larynx and we could not develop our larynx in isolation.

We need to hear language to be able to make it our own.

We learn language from within, from our higher self. Language allows us to connect and express ourselves with others. Language is the “bearers of the spiritual life that permeates the physical world primarily by means of human beings.” (Lecture One, Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity).

In the Bible the word is God. We have spelling where words create spells. Language is important. Words are important.

Steiner says that our soul-being needs to be stimulated to learn language. We need to develop the larynx before our earliest memory, before we attain full I-consciousness, so that the larynx can become an organ of speech. (page 10)

“Then we learn to speak—to formulate the truth—out of the spirit. In other words, we develop the essence of truth out of speech sounds.” (Steiner, p. 15)

Once we’ve found our voice, we begin to form thoughts. Steiner sees thinking not as mere logic, but as a spiritual faculty shaped by our higher being.

3. Thinking: Forming the “I”

The development of our brain is important as it is the tool of thinking. Thinking, according to Steiner’s view of thinking, which is our way to the cosmos, but also through feeling, the way inward and it all is processed in the brain through thinking.

We develop our brain. We, ourselves, develop our brain. And it is developed according to our divine self, our essential being. Our brain becomes an instrument to express our nature, our unique self.

Our brain at birth, according to Steiner, comes from our parents and ancestors. “It is our thinking that we bring to expression what we are as individuals in conformity with our former early lives.” We transform the brain we have inherited from our ancestors into our own unique individuality.

“...we also develop the brain, the organ for our life as earthly I-beings.” (Steiner, p. 15)

Rene Descarte, a French philosopher and mathematician famously said, “ I think therefore I am.”

The Threshold of Memory and the I-Consciousness

When we are young, in our first three years of life, our soul is connected to the spiritual realm. It is during this time that it has the freedom to shape these three key components of our development: walking, speech, and life..

Then comes the I - Consciousness. This is the moment of our earliest memory. Once the I - Consciousness moves in it “establishes its own relationship to the outer world.”

Our higher self works from the spirit world deep into our bodies. The brain is formed out of spirit. What happens during the first three years does not become part of our conscious life. It would be great for parents to document these first 3 years as much as they can.

After our first memory, around the 3rd or 4th year of life, consciousness takes over and we enter a sleep, forgetting who we were when we had these powerful spiritual forces working through us.

The forces that prevent our higher self from continuing to work through us after our first memory come from the earth.

Steiner speaks of a future when the earthly and spiritual realms will separate. Others—like Dolores Cannon, and even the Bible—echo this vision of a spiritual evolution of humanity. When it comes time for the earth to separate, humanity needs to have advanced to be able to surrender totally to the spiritual world. The goal of evolution is to work on us evolving our whole being, physical and spiritual, to surrender to the higher powers that worked on us in early childhood.

This surrender is not easy. That’s why I created the Cosmic Shake-Up Survival Guide—to offer grounding tools during this very journey of remembering and realignment.

Steiner states, “Thus, in the first three years of life, we learn three things. We learn to find the “way,” that is, to walk; we learn to represent the “truth” with our organism, and we learn to express “life” in our body through the spirit.” The spiritual forces that guide us through this process is Christ consciousness.

We can find Christ consciousness during our life if we dive into self-knowledge. When Steiner speaks of Christ consciousness, I understand this also as the “Best Self”—a wise, benevolent force guiding our development, inspiring creativity, and healing our bodies.

“Our body becomes the expression of the way, the truth, and the life. Similarly, the human spirit gradually becomes the conscious bearer of the way, the truth, and the life by permeating itself with Christ. Thereby we transform ourselves in the course of our earthly life into the power at work in us in childhood.” (Steiner, p. 16)

What does this look like in real life—in our lives? Let me share how this showed up in my earliest memory.

My Earliest Memory

I recently posted a story in my Sunday Story playlist on youtube about my earliest memory of me being about 4 years old, having my family laugh at me and feeling fired with determination, anger, and motivation to run away. The story continues on how my parents gave me the space to run away and return. I will post a link to this video in the description.

Based on what Steiner says about our first memory being the breaking point of our I-consciousness. This could be an interesting time of transformation. What Steienr does not speak of is the meaning behind our first memory. Does the first memory matter? I feel that it must. I need to read more of Steiner to know his thoughts. AS is the case with Steiner, in my opinion, that I need to read more than one lecture or book to fully understand his point of view on his topic.

As we reflect on our earliest memories, we begin to see how they can shape our current spiritual journey. To help you explore the archetypes influencing your own path, I’ve created a free quiz on transliminality archetypes . This quiz will help you better understand which stage of transliminality you may be experiencing, offering insights into how to navigate this transformative process. Check it out below to gain a deeper understanding of your personal journey.

What First Memories Reveal About the Soul

My first memory shows an aspect of my earlier life that I still identify with. I feel an essence of my youth being one where I was focused, strong, and adventurous. This corresponds to my first memory. One where I wasn’t going to put up with people’s shit and I was out the door if people didn’t treat me right. New adventures awaited. This is an element of my life that I have lost and do wish to reembody. This ties into what Steiner says, about us connecting and merging with our Christ consciousness, the spiritual realm that helped us develop in those earlier years.

How did I see these spiritual forces throughout my life….how do you see yours? Capturing the stories that surface in our mind via the written word or through images that tell the story or your essence from that time is a wonderful way.

To support you in exploring your own earliest memory and experience of I-consciousness, I created this guided meditation...

🌲 The Inner Mirror Journey — Guided Active Imagination Meditation

Please listen to the guided active imagination to connect with your earliest soul memory:

https://youtu.be/3dF0xbODR8w

🌀 Integration: The Way, The Truth, and The Life — Expressive Reflection

Now that you’ve journeyed inward, take some time to explore what surfaced for you. These questions can help draw the invisible into form—through writing, art, or even movement.

Choose the medium that calls to you today:
📖 Write. 🎨 Create an image. 🌀 Move your body.
There is no wrong way to respond.

✍️ Questions for Reflection:

• What was your Way?
  How did you begin to move through the world as a child? What energy or qualities shaped your early path?

• What was your Truth?
  What deep knowing or essence did you carry into this life? What felt undeniably true to your soul, even if no one else saw it?

• What was your Life / “I”?
  Can you glimpse the moment you first sensed your own “I am”? What did it feel like to be you for the first time?

Let your responses unfold naturally. You may want to:

• Draw a symbol for each: your Way, your Truth, your Life/I

• Write a short poem or journal entry that speaks from your younger self

• Move your body to express the essence of one of these three—let it be intuitive, even if no one is watching

✦ Connection to Today’s Adult Life

As I reflect on Steiner’s teachings, I realize these three spiritual tasks—walking, speaking, and thinking—are not just developmental milestones. They’re sacred patterns we can return to, again and again, to re-align with our Best Self.

I ask myself:

• Am I still walking my soul’s path with purpose?

• Am I still speaking my truth with clarity and care?

• Am I still thinking in alignment with the deeper wisdom of my being?

So now I ask you:

How can you reclaim or remember your soul-guided path?
What does it mean to you to walk, speak, and think in alignment with your spirit—today?

Conclusion

Steiner shows us that our soul’s wisdom precedes memory. By remembering, expressing, and honoring our earliest stirrings of being, we begin to align once more with our Best Self—the guide who has never left us. That is the way. That is the truth. That is the life.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/5FDhlItPuUg

Refer to Rudolf Steiner's book The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity.