The black and white checkered floor has existed in temples since the
times of ancient Egypt. More than simply decorative, the mosaic
pavement bears a profound esoteric meaning. Today it is one of
Freemasonry’s most recognizable symbols and is the ritualistic floor of
all Masonic lodges. The pavement is the area on which initiations occur
and is “emblematic of human life, checkered with good and evil.”
“The mosaic pavement in an old symbol of the Order. It is met with in
the earliest rituals of the last century. It is classed among the
ornaments of the lodge along with the indented tessel and the blazing
star. Its party-colored stones of black and white have been readily and
appropriately interpreted as symbols of the evil and good of human
life.” 1
In the Entered Apprentice Degree, the mosaic pavement represents the
ground floor of King Solomon’s Temple. In the account of King Solomon’s
Temple in the Bible, the ground floor is said to be made of pine or
fir, depending on the Bible translation (1 Ki 6:15).
While the pavement of most lodges consist of a black and white
checkered pattern, the colors might vary. Lozenges might also be used
instead of squares.
Mosaic pavement of an Eastern Star Lodge
Mosaic pattern inside Notre Dame de Paris, a Cathedral built by the Knight Templars, the spiritual ancestors of the Freemasons
“La Papesse” is card number two of the tarot, a number symbolic of duality. Notice the Ying Yang symbol on the Priestress’s book representing the same dualistic principles of the mosaic pavement.
Duality
The juxtaposition of opposing colors on the mosaic pavement is a
visual representation an important principle of hermetism: duality.
“The pavement, alternately black and white, symbolizes,
whether so intended or not, the Good and Evil Principles of the Egyptian
and Persian creed. It is the warfare of Michael and Satan, of the Gods
and Titans, of Balder and Lok; between light and shadow, which is
darkness; Day and Night; Freedom and Despotism; Religious Liberty and
the Arbitrary Dogmas of a Church that thinks for its votaries, and whose
Pontiff claims to be infallible, and the decretals of its Councils to
constitute a gospel.” 3
“The Floor, or groundwork of the Lodge, a chequer-work of
black and white squares, denotes the dual quality of everything
connected with terrestrial life and the physical groundwork of human
nature – the mortal body and its appetites and affections. “The web of
our life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together”, wrote Shakespeare.
Everything material is characterized by inextricably interblended good
and evil, light and shade, joy and sorrow, positive and negative. What
is good for me may be evil for you; pleasure is generated from pain and
ultimately degenerates into pain again; what it is right to do at one
moment may be wrong the next; I am intellectually exalted to-day and
to-morrow correspondingly depressed and benighted: The dualism of these
opposites governs us in everything, and experience of it is prescribed
for us until such time as, having learned and outgrown its lesson, we
are ready for advancement to a condition where we outgrow the sense of
this chequer-work existence and those opposites cease to be perceived as
opposites, but are realized as a unity or synthesis. To find that unity
or synthesis is to know the peace which passes understanding i.e.
which surpasses our present experience, because in it the darkness and
the light are both alike, and our present concepts of good and evil, joy
and pain, are transcended and found sublimated in a condition
combining both. And this lofty condition is represented by the indented
or tesselated border skirting the black and white chequer-work, even as
the Divine Presence and Providence surrounds and embraces our temporal
organisms in which those opposites are inherent.” 4
Furthermore, the checkered floor is representative of earth, the
material world and contrasts the ceiling, which is made to represent the
heavens and the spiritual realm.
“The Covering of the Lodge is shown in sharp contrast to
its black and white flooring and is described as “a celestial canopy of
divers colours, even the heavens.
If the flooring symbolizes man’s earthy sensuous nature, the ceiling
typifies his ethereal nature, his “heavens” and the properties resident
therein. The one is the reverse and the opposite pole of the other. His
material body is visible and densely composed. His ethereal surround, or
“aura”, is tenuous and invisible, (save to clairvoyant vision), and
like the fragrance thrown off by a flower. Its existence will be doubted
by those unprepared to accept what is not physically demonstrable, but
the Masonic student, who will be called upon to accept many such truths
provisionally until he knows them as certainties, should reflect (i)
that he has entered the Craft with the professed object of receiving
light upon the nature of his own being, (2) that the Order engages to
assist him to that light in regard to matters of which he is admittedly
ignorant, and that its teachings and symbols were devised by wise and
competent instructors in such matters, and (3) that a humble, docile and
receptive mental attitude towards those symbols and their meanings will
better conduce. to his advancement than a critical or hostile one.” 5
Ceremonial Floor
The mosaic pavement is a esoterically-charged space on which stands
the ceremonial altar, the center of most rituals. The ceremony for the
Apprentice Degree symbolically takes place in that location. According
to the Third Degree Ritual, the Square Pavement is for the High Priest to walk upon.
“Why is the chequer floor-work given such prominence in
the Lodge-furniture? The answer is to be found in the statement in the
Third Degree Ritual : “The square pavement is for the High Priest to
walk upon”. Now it is not merely the Jewish High Priest of centuries ago
that is here referred to, but the individual member of the Craft. For
every Mason is intended to be the High Priest of his own personal temple
and to make of it a place where he and Deity may meet. By the mere fact
of being in this dualistic world every living being, whether a Mason or
not, walks upon the square pavement of mingled good and evil in every
action of his life, so that the floor-cloth is the symbol of an
elementary philosophical truth common to us all. But, for us, the words
“walk upon” imply much more than that. They mean that he who aspires to
be master of his fate and captain of his soul must walk upon these
opposites in the sense of transcending and dominating them, of trampling
upon his lower sensual nature and keeping it beneath his feet in
subjection and control. He must become able to rise above the motley of
good and evil, to be superior and indifferent to the ups and downs of
fortune, the attractions and fears governing ordinary men and swaying
their thoughts and actions this way or that. His object is the
development of his innate spiritual potencies, and it is impossible that
these should develop so long as he is over-ruled by his material
tendencies and the fluctuating emotions of pleasure and pain that they
give birth to. It is by rising superior to these and attaining serenity
and mental equilibrium under any circumstances in which for the moment
he may be placed, that a Mason truly “walks upon” the chequered ground
work of existence and the conflicting tendencies of his more material
nature.” 6
Some claim that the mosaic pavement serves as a “magical circle” to
be used in inter-dimensional travel and communication. The deeper
meaning of the mosaic is therefore said to transcend the limits of the
material realm.
A plate from “The Hidden Life of Freemasonry” by Charles W. Leadbeater depicting a candidate being introduced to nature-spirits, occurring on the checkered floor.
In Popular Culture
Whether for intentionally Masonic purposes or as an archetypal reflex,
scenes ritualistic and metaphysical transformation are often depicted on
a checkered floor.
Tri-dimensional crop circle design where the mosaic pavement leads to a metaphysical portal
A checkerboard pattern leading to Dr Parnassus’ “magic mirror”, a gateway to the spiritual plane.
Michael Jackson dressed in ritualistic red garments on the ceremonial checkerboard floor.