49 § The Black and the White
T H E Masonic symbol of the 'mosaic pavement' (tessellated pavement) is among those that are often insufficiently understood or badly interpreted. This pavement is formed of alternating black and white squares, arranged in exactly the same way as the squares of a chess or checker board. The symbolism is obviously the same in the board as in the pavement, for as we have said on various occasions, games were originally something quite different from the mere profane amusements that they have become today; and chess moreover is certainly one of those games in which traces of the original 'sacredness' have remained most apparent in spite of this degeneration.
14. In Masonic ritual this naturally corresponds to the mode of communication of 'sacred words'.
15. As long as one remains within the multiplicity of manifestation, one can only 'spell' the name of the Principle by discerning the reflection of its attributes in creatures wherein they are expressed only in a fragmentary and scattered way. The Mason who has not reached the grade of Master is still unable 'to gather that which is scattered', and this is why he 'knows only how to spell'.
In the most immediate sense, the juxtaposition of white and black naturally represents light and darkness, day and night, and consequently all the pairs of opposites or of complementaries (it is hardly necessary to recall that what is opposition at a certain level becomes complementarity at another, so that the same symbolism is equally applicable to both); in this respect then, we have here the exact equivalent of the Far Eastern symbol of the yin-yang. [1] It can even be noted that the interpenetration and the inseparability of the two aspects yin and yang, represented by the fact that the two halves of the figure are bounded by a sinuous line, are also represented on the board by the intermingling of the two kinds of squares, whereas another arrangement, as for example that of rectilinear bands alternately white and black, would not bring out the same idea so clearly, and could even give the impression of juxtaposition purely and simply. [2]
There would be no point in repeating here all that we have already said elsewhere about the yin-yang; we will simply recall, in particular, that there must not be seen in this symbolism, any more than in the recognition of the cosmic dualities of which it is the expression, the affirmation of any 'dualism'; for if these dualities really exist in their own order, their terms are none the less derived from the unity of a single principle (the Tai-ki of the Far Eastern tradition). This, in fact, is one of the most important points, for it is this especially which gives rise to false interpretations. Some have believed that they can speak of 'dualism' in connection with the yin-yang, probably through misunderstanding, but sometimes perhaps with more or less dubious intentions. In any case, as far as the 'mosaic pavement' is concerned, such an interpretation is most often the work of adversaries of Masonry who would like to make it the basis of an accusation of 'Manicheism'. It is certainly quite possible that some 'dualists' themselves may have diverted this symbolism from its true meaning in order to interpret it according to their own doctrines, just as for the same reason they have been able to alter symbols expressing a unity and an immutability inconceivable to them; but these are in any case no more than heterodox deviations which do not in any way affect the symbolism in itself; and from the strictly initiatic point of view, deviations of this kind are not worth considering. [3]
Now, beyond the meaning we have spoken of so far, there is another that is more profound, and this results directly from the double significance of the colour black, which we have explained on other occasions. We have just been considering only its lower and cosmological meaning, but we must also consider its higher and metaphysical meaning. A particularly clear example of this is to be found in the Hindu tradition, where the one who is being initiated must be seated on the hide of black and white hair, symbolising respectively the unmanifested and the manifested. [4] The fact that it is a question here of an essentially initiatic rite sufficiently justifies the comparison with the example of the 'mosaic pavement' and the express attribution of the same meaning to that also, even if in the present state of affairs this meaning has been completely forgotten. Thus, we have here a symbolism equivalent to that or Arjuna, the 'white', and of Krishna, the 'black', who are, in the being itself, the mortal and the immortal, the 'me' and the 'Self'; [5] and since these are also the 'two birds inseparably united' of the Upanishads, this evokes yet another symbol, that of the two-headed white and black eagle which figures in certain high Masonic grades-a further example which, after so many others, shows once more that symbolic language is truly universal.