Checkmate

The Mosaic Pavement


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
(special) 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 tassel 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.”
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).“The checkerboard floor upon which the modern
Freemasonic lodge stands is the old tracing board of the
Dionysiac (Greek) Architects, and while the modern
organization is no longer limited to workmen’s guilds it
still preserves its symbols.
When thinking of the idea of Duality and the concept of
good and evil, black and white, sacred and profane, an
image that immediately enters my mind is that of the Ying-
Yang.
While this symbol has become a sort of pop culture icon in
recent times, its symbolism is deep and its meaning
applicable to this subject. While it has numerous
interpretations the ying-yang demonstrates the concept of
duality and balance. The synonym balance is an important
term because of the position of the checkered carpet, the
floor, where the foundation of the erect human body may
be found. The mason is taught to avoid irregularity and
intemperance and to divide his time equally by the use of
the twenty four inch gauge. These lessons refer to the
importance of balance in a Mason’s life. Therefore the
symbolism of the mosaic pavement could be interpreted to
mean that balance provides the foundation of our Masonic
growth.Maintaining balance allows us to adhere to many Masonic
teachings. By maintaining balance we may be able to stand
upright in our several stations before God or man. The
entered apprentice is charges to keep balance in his life so
that he may ensure public and private esteem. It is also very
interesting that the concept of Justice is represented by a
scale which is balanced and that justice is described as
being the foundation of civil society in the first degree of
masonry
“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 ourpresent 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.”
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 diverse 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. 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.”
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.
“Why is the chequer floor-work given such prominence in
the Lodge-furniture? 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. Hisobject 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.”
There is a vast variety of symbolism presented to the new
initiate in the first degree. It is easy for the symbol of the
mosaic pavement and its several meanings to be lost in the
sea of information provided upon our first admission to
lodge. A deeper look demonstrates that this symbol serves
to demonstrate the ideals which form the foundation of our
individual Masonic growth, the Masonic fraternity, and
even the entire human society.
Living in balance makes us healthy, happy and just. If our
feet are well balanced, both literally and figuratively, we
may be able to serve the purpose of the Fraternity better.
R.W. Bro. John K. Johnston