First Mansion — Self-Knowledge and Humility

The Primera Morada in Teresa of Ávila's Interior Castle marks the soul's initial entry into self-knowledge through humility — the recognition, aided by prevenient grace, that an interior life exists beyond worldly attachment. Teresa describes the soul as surrounded by reptiles and vermin (las sabandijas), still captive to distractions yet having crossed the threshold of the castle walls. This mansion corresponds to the purgative way (via purgativa) in the classical threefold path, where the first movement is always compunctio cordis — the piercing of the heart that turns it inward.