# What does the "Checkered Pavement" Symbolize?



## Blake Bowden

What does the "Checkered Pavement" Symbolize? 








Notice: Answer(s) will be posted soon...


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## coachn

Brother Blake,

Based upon my research, I would have to say that your options do not include the very option that most Masons should know without waver.



That options would be:

Important / Unimportant
Please let me explain.

I believe that the checkered pavement is a symbol whose meaning has been lost due to our culture being so detached from what used to be common to people over 200 years ago.

It is a fact that the ground floor of Solomon's Temple was purchased by his father, King David, for full price from Ornan (Ornan is also known by a few other names). For those Masons who do not know, Ornan used this very spot to thresh grain heads from the chaff and winnow away that chaff once threshed.

From these facts, I'd have to say that the checkered pavement represented *Wheat and Chaff* at one level, with Wheat being the white spots and Chaff being the dark spots.

Furthermore, I believe that this concept was the intent of those who placed this pattern within Masonic symbolism. This very theme, *threshing and winnowing*, is repeated to this day by Masons at many levels. The ground floor, threshing-floor, is a place where Masons are asked to thresh and winnow symbolically to separate that which is important from that which is not. 

So, Wheat and Chaff, at a much more significant level represent that which nurtures (*important*) and that which doesn't nurture (*unimportant*) of which Masons MUST learn to separate effortlessly if they are to do their Work in the World, with integrity. 



Here's a breakdown of important vs unimportant and the levels that they occur.

Candidate - *Himself* from the *Profane world*
EA - *Himself* from *Vices and Superfluities*
FC - *Proper* understanding and application of the principles learned in Grammar/Logic/Rhetoric/Arithmetic/Geometry/Music/Astronomy from *improper* of the same. (Studying the SLAs&Ss brings Order to chaos, thus allowing for a man to distinguish -- *separate* -- things that he could not prior to study.)
MM - *Himself* from *Ruffians* (people who want titles and benefits without doing the Work and earning the same; people who lack integrity)
These are my opinions and my thoughts.

F&S,

Bro. Coach N

PS - Yeah, I KNOW what we are told in Ritual.  I believe that's a surface explanation and feel that the explanation given doesn't do EA and others the good that the threshing-floor theme does. IMO


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## jwhoff

Got here with the answer before I could brother.  But you are completely correct on all points.

This is one of those "lights" that should be taught to brethren along the way.  To my knowledge that threshing floor remains beneath the temple to this day.  David did purchase it but was told by God that the project of building the temple would fall to Solomon.  

jwhoff


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## Blake Bowden

Answer is:

C. Good and Evil


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## coachn

Blake Bowden said:


> Answer is:
> 
> C. Good and Evil


Brother Blake,

Forgive me for challenging your provided post. This is "an" answer, and it is based upon a lecture that someone wrote and others repeated. *It is not the only answer *and it is not an answer that would be put forth if one further investigated the basis and history of the symbol.

As a man and Mason, I have to keep in mind that these "Lectures" were created by other men who made effort to add "meat" to Ritual. At the same time, these rituals are full of purposeful inaccuracies, strategic red herrings and contrived misdirections, *designed to reveal only to those who are worthy and to placate those who refuse to do the Work.* It behooves Masons to know their histories and not take for granted that all that is stated within Ritual and its lectures to be "truth" and the only truth. To ignore such possibility serves no justice to a quest for further Light and only serves to keep our Brothers in the dark.

I believe that the answer you gave above, sounds good on the surface (afterall, who can debate the fact that it does appear in our Lectures), but when one lifts the veil, there is more to it than what's being memorized and given back without much investigation.

IMO

Bro. Coach N


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## rhitland

nice post Brother Coach and I feel you are right many amendments have been made to the ritual to make it "fit" better in society which did hide some secrets deeper.  I have always felt the checkered pavement represented more than just evil acts or evil people.  Many things that we find in life that are deemed unimportant, if we engage them will almost always come to fruit evil in one way or another.  One could argue Good and Evil is the same as Important and Unimportant if like you said the good masons has done his book work!


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## coachn

rhitland said:


> nice post Brother Coach and I feel you are right many amendments have been made to the ritual to make it "fit" better in society which did hide some secrets deeper. I have always felt the checkered pavement represented more than just evil acts or evil people. Many things that we find in life that are deemed unimportant, if we engage them will almost always come to fruit evil in one way or another. One could argue Good and Evil is the same as Important and Unimportant if like you said the good masons has done his book work!


I agree with you my Brother.  One can easily associate the two conclusions and argue convincingly that the two could be synonmous in outcome.  I've gone this route of thought many times and smile when I see the path leading back to "good and evil."


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## LRG

Allegory. Very nice.


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## tom268

For me, it is most and for all light and darkness. That may include good and evil, but the weight of the symbol lies more in being part or not part of enlightenment. What comes out of being part or not, is a different question.

To speak of a symbol as "The answer is ..." misses the point of symbolic work. That's why we use symbols, not set of rules. The symbol is the physical body of a complex idea. Every brother, who watches the symbol fills it with his own life experiences. That's why there can never be only one answer.


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## dhouseholder

coachn said:


> Yeah, I KNOW what we are told in Ritual.  I believe that's a surface explanation and feel that the explanation given doesn't do EA and others the good that the threshing-floor theme does. IMO


 I don't think the checkered pavement is explained in the Texas Work. Is it explained in your state?


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## rhitland

dhouseholder said:


> I don't think the checkered pavement is explained in the Texas Work. Is it explained in your state?



They did take it out when they shortened the lecture but put it in the monitor.  Some lodges still give that long version though so you will hear it in some Texas lodges being explained.


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## dhouseholder

rhitland said:


> They did take it out when they shortened the lecture but put it in the monitor.  Some lodges still give that long version though so you will hear it in some Texas lodges being explained.


 
Yeah, I remembered the monitor, I remember seeing all sorts of different things in various GL work, like the skirret.

http://www.mastermason.com/lodge850/reading/skirret.htm


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## Beathard

Grand Lodge of England says:

The chequered pavement and its border provide material of great symbolical interest. The black and white carpetor the mosaic pavement points out the diversity of objects which decorate and adorn the creation. It points out the uncertainty of all things here on earth &ndash; prosperity and adversity, joys and sorrows and our varied and chequered existence through life.


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## LukeD

Bro Coach N,

  Not sure if you can elaborate more on this forum, but your statement  made me think for some time.  

"At the same time, these rituals are full of purposeful inaccuracies, strategic red herrings and contrived misdirections, designed to reveal only to those who are worthy and to placate those who refuse to do the Work."

The statement makes sense, but at the same time I'm wondering "have I been learning and absorbing the wrong stuff?"


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## RedTemplar

We have the checkered tile in my lodge. On the outside edge of the pavement lay tiles of gray. I have often thought if there is any
symbolic significance to this flooring since black and white represent good and evil, right and wrong, important and unimportant, and etc. could there be a discussion of "gray" areas?


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## cog41

Good and evil, darkness and light, boundaries and borders, purity and vice, wisdom and foolishnes.

This is a good thread.


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## jwhoff

RedTemplar said:


> We have the checkered tile in my lodge. On the outside edge of the pavement lay tiles of gray. I have often thought if there is any
> symbolic significance to this flooring since black and white represent good and evil, right and wrong, important and unimportant, and etc. could there be a discussion of "gray" areas?



Thanks Brother Red. Those gray tiles have gotten us into plenty of trouble through the minilia.  Human nature is allowed to show its full potential.  Some have extrapolated to their advantage, others have errored to the conservative.  Those with insight grow but too often mankind fails miserably.  

Yes those gray tiles are of critical importance.  They are the result of a maker placing us under the square to decide for ourselves.  Too often we have failed to reach for the compasses and guidance from above.


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## jonesvilletexas

The Mosaic, or checkered pavement, represents this world; which, though checkered over with good and evil, yet brethren may walk together thereon and not stumble.


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## jwhoff

Touchdown *Tennessee*!

Just a thought in keeping with the season.

:001_rolleyes:


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## KSigMason

From the 1st Degree Lecture (Idaho Work):



> The Mosaic Pavement is emblematic of human life, checkered with good and evil.


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## BryanMaloney

That which we should seek and that we should not seek. Whether we want to call it "good and evil", "light and darkness", "wisdom and folly", ultimately, it boils down to what we ought and ought not do and seek out, and how we always have to walk between both alternatives in this world.


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## Rick Clifton

coachn said:


> Brother Blake,
> 
> Based upon my research, I would have to say that your options do not include the very option that most Masons should know without waver.
> 
> 
> 
> That options would be:
> 
> Important / Unimportant
> Please let me explain.
> 
> I believe that the checkered pavement is a symbol whose meaning has been lost due to our culture being so detached from what used to be common to people over 200 years ago.
> 
> It is a fact that the ground floor of Solomon's Temple was purchased by his father, King David, for full price from Ornan (Ornan is also known by a few other names). For those Masons who do not know, Ornan used this very spot to thresh grain heads from the chaff and winnow away that chaff once threshed.
> 
> From these facts, I'd have to say that the checkered pavement represented *Wheat and Chaff* at one level, with Wheat being the white spots and Chaff being the dark spots.
> 
> Furthermore, I believe that this concept was the intent of those who placed this pattern within Masonic symbolism. This very theme, *threshing and winnowing*, is repeated to this day by Masons at many levels. The ground floor, threshing-floor, is a place where Masons are asked to thresh and winnow symbolically to separate that which is important from that which is not.
> 
> So, Wheat and Chaff, at a much more significant level represent that which nurtures (*important*) and that which doesn't nurture (*unimportant*) of which Masons MUST learn to separate effortlessly if they are to do their Work in the World, with integrity.
> 
> 
> 
> Here's a breakdown of important vs unimportant and the levels that they occur.
> 
> Candidate - *Himself* from the *Profane world*
> EA - *Himself* from *Vices and Superfluities*
> FC - *Proper* understanding and application of the principles learned in Grammar/Logic/Rhetoric/Arithmetic/Geometry/Music/Astronomy from *improper* of the same. (Studying the SLAs&Ss brings Order to chaos, thus allowing for a man to distinguish -- *separate* -- things that he could not prior to study.)
> MM - *Himself* from *Ruffians* (people who want titles and benefits without doing the Work and earning the same; people who lack integrity)
> These are my opinions and my thoughts.
> 
> F&S,
> 
> Bro. Coach N
> 
> PS - Yeah, I KNOW what we are told in Ritual.  I believe that's a surface explanation and feel that the explanation given doesn't do EA and others the good that the threshing-floor theme does. IMO



Great Answer!!!   King Ornan's threshing floor.  Where the chaff is separated from the wheat.  Where masons symbolically do the same work, by making good men, better.

Have you been reading,"Building Hiram" by Dr. John Nagy?:SNC:


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## jwhoff

I suspect he has.  :sneaky2:


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## dfreybur

Symbolically, the checkered pavement is also a suggested dress code.  A lodge is or should be tiled in black and white.  Does that expression refer to the checkered payment on floor or on a dress code for the tiler to suggest as the brothers pass through his door?  I'll take an "and" in place of that "or" please.


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## timd24

Life and Death 
Good and Evil

Freemason Connect Mobile


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## coachn

Been a while since I visited this thread.


dhouseholder said:


> I don't think the checkered pavement is explained in the Texas Work. Is it explained in your state?


Yes.  It is.  But not in the way that I did in this thread.


LukeD said:


> Bro Coach N,
> 
> Not sure if you can elaborate more on this forum, but your statement  made me think for some time.
> 
> "At the same time, these rituals are full of purposeful inaccuracies, strategic red herrings and contrived misdirections, designed to reveal only to those who are worthy and to placate those who refuse to do the Work."
> 
> The statement makes sense, but at the same time I'm wondering "have I been learning and absorbing the wrong stuff?"


No my Brother.  It is important to learn and absorb what your Jurisdiction offers, if not for any other purpose than to be in harmony with your Brothers who do not go beyond the superficialities of what is offered.  That being said, it is even more important to understand that Ritual is dominated by allusions of which intend for thinking men to use as prompts for further investigation so that you understand more in depth what is being put before you -- and there is a lot more than meets the eye and heart at first.  The Checkered Pavement (for me) shall forever be Symbolic of the Threshing-floor for which Ritual calls forth men to do very important Work -- to thresh and winnow (break apart and separate) that which is important and unimportant in there lives; gather that which nurtures (wheat) them best and remove that which depletes (chaff).  Should Brothers want it to focus solely upon good and evil, I fear that they shall miss out on the Work that actually makes them Better.


Rick Clifton said:


> Great Answer!!!   King Ornan's threshing floor.  Where the chaff is separated from the wheat.  Where masons symbolically do the same work, by making good men, better.
> 
> Have you been reading,"Building Hiram" by Dr. John Nagy?:SNC:


Yes!  In fact, I wrote about it in Building Boaz AND I go in depth in my Building Better Builders Workshop's first section - The Apprentice Work!

BTW - I shall be at Kelly Lodge I San Antonio on Oct. 26th to do just that.  I would love to meet some of you should you be in the area that day.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Build...Kelly-Masonic-Lodge-1131-AFAM/274903529290642


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## dfreybur

coachn said:


> BTW - I shall be at Kelly Lodge I San Antonio on Oct. 27th to do just that.  I would love to meet some of you should you be in the area that day.



A lodge event other than a funeral on a Sunday?


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## coachn

dfreybur said:


> A lodge event other than a funeral on a Sunday?


Opps - That's Oct. 26th!  Looks like the date on the link needs to be corrected too.  Memo sent!


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## marty15chris

Just to bring up another point for discussion. What do you think of the idea that the black and white tiled floor came from the colors of the Knights Templar Flag?  Which really has about the same meaning, good and evil, without the thrashing floor reference. 


Freemason Connect HD


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## coachn

I think it removes the very foundation on which the Altar and Temple were placed.


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## marty15chris

I'd be interested in hearing why you think that if you could expand on your thoughts in either a post or PM. Depending on your thoughts on where and when Masonry started one could say the knights used it first. 

Not advocating one theory over another, I happen to believe the true origins of Freemasonry have been lost to time and think that adds to the beauty of the craft.     


Freemason Connect HD


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## coachn

marty15chris said:


> I'd be interested in hearing why you think that if you could expand on your thoughts in either a post or PM. Depending on your thoughts on where and when Masonry started one could say the knights used it first.


Because the very Foundation of each, including the Work we are asked to do as men and Masons, require a Threshing-floor that is used to do just that -- Break apart the wheat from the chaff and then separate them out.  Your Common Gavel cannot be used Properly if you do not know what it is that you are to Divest in your life.  Sure, you could vomit up what you were told to but you cannot direct that Common Gavel unless you know what Vices and Superfluities actually exist in Your Life.  That Twenty-four Inch Gauge is another Working Tool that is absolutely useless unless you know what your Priorities actually are.  You can only arrive at that understanding by Threshing and winnowing your life enough to get that understanding.   

In other words, it's not enough to give lip service to the symbolism by saying it represents good and evil.  You must go beyond the veil, reach into that symbolism, ask yourself how it applies toward your life and then apply it without waver.  Waving a flag looks good on the surface, but carrying that flag within a battle where your life depends upon the actions you take is a whole different level of carrying.


marty15chris said:


> Not advocating one theory over another, I happen to believe the true origins of Freemasonry have been lost to time and think that adds to the beauty of the craft.
> Freemason Connect HD


The simplest and most accurate origin theory of Freemasonry is that some drinking buddies got together and decided to create a GL around 1717 that would rule over the unaffiliated Lodges within the area.  It is not the origin of Masonry.  They are two different things.  And yes, mystery is Beautiful!


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## DJGurkins

This thread got me to thinking. Myself being a newly raised Master Mason I could be off but couldn't the Back And White Tiles just as easily represent the duality of life. Isn't a natural law of nature for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. With that couldn't everyone be right in the since of they represent Duality. Good evil, Man woman, Dark Light, cold hot, Love Hate.


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## coachn

DJGurkins said:


> This thread got me to thinking.


GOOD!


DJGurkins said:


> Myself being a newly raised Master Mason I could be off but couldn't the Back And White Tiles just as easily represent the duality of life.


They can represent anything you want them to.


DJGurkins said:


> Isn't a natural law of nature for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.


Yup!  


DJGurkins said:


> With that couldn't everyone be right in the since of they represent Duality. Good evil, Man woman, Dark Light, cold hot, Love Hate.


This is not a matter of being right.  It is a matter of making sense for yourself.  

For me, the emphasis upon The Threshing-floor is profound.  This symbolism alone could direct us to do the Work that makes us Better but coupling it with the fact that this Threshing-floor was on top of Mount Moriah, a mountain whose very name means, "God's Instruction/Teaching", tells me that our Threshing Work must be done, and "founded", upon God's Teachings. 

It's one thing to "get in touch" with the symbolism; it's a whole other matter to both recognize and understand the background connections and to put them into practice. 

When you miss important inter-related aspects of the symbols, taking them out of context to let them dangle unsupported in mid air, you loose a lot.  You can easily overlook the message that it is making effort to convey, along with the associated Work it directs us toward.


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## BroBook

Well since it is the lodge floor I think it's to remind those that walk on it that while walking in the world we will encounter good/evil,right /wrong but if we take the right turns we will find light!!!


My Freemasonry


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## Warrior1256

Blake Bowden said:


> Answer is:
> 
> C. Good and Evil


This is what I was told and how I voted.


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## Levelhead

Diversity.


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## crono782

I'd voted on this a long time back and saw it pop up again with the latest replies which has made me ponder over it again. I'd originally said C) Good and Evil. However I've come to amend (or expand rather) my original thoughts thusly:

In order to understand the Checkered Pavement, you cannot look at it as a symbol by itself, but rather you must look at the three inter-related symbols as one larger whole. We are told that the Checkered (or Mosaic) Pavement symbolizes human life "checkered" with good and evil. You could indeed view each white tile as good and black ones as evil or ill events (or perhaps vice-versa) that occur through the course of human existence, but look wider. We are then told about the Tessellated (or tassellated) Border surrounding it which reminds us of blessings in human life that overarch singular occurrences, whether good or bad. Finally, tie the entire lesson together with the image of the Blazing Star which needs no extended explanation here. The blazing star residing at the center of the mosaic pavement is a truth if ever there was one. All events in human life radiate out from the center and also all blessings that envelope life.

I now think that the checkered pavement, when combined with it's constituent symbols, illustrates a picture of man's relationship with divinity and the manner of the Divine's role in human life. No wonder it should be such a prominent sight in all Lodge rooms to remind us of this fact...


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## Roy_

Perhaps a few things more to think about. The information brochure that I got, speaks of "square tiles" (this is usually case, but in the above it is nowhere explicit) and another element that is not yet mentioned: a "serrated edge" (or how would you call it?) "of which the dark triangles point inwards, and therefor the light triangles outwards." This automatically means that the flour lays diagonally and not straight, yet still the "square tiles" lay "parallel to the main directions", which can never mean the walls, but neither West/East, etc.
Any thoughts?

Our instructions speak of duality, as with the black/white clothing.

A completely different look at things. A Dutch author connects the checkered pavement with the building symbolism that can still be found in many older (or old-style) buildings:





Where the arch represents the heavens, and the checkered filling, the ploughed land, or the earth. (See most right image. There are different patterns to be found, the most common is like our checkered floor).

So the floor the land, the blue dome the sky, making the temple like we're outside.


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## crono782

The serrated you talk about is roughly equivalent to the tessellated. Although many speculate that this is a word perversion over many years of a different word, tasselated, that is having tassels or rope border rather than a tiled border.


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## Roy_

I just used Google translator because I didn't know the English equivalent. I have that more often 

Google has "tessallated" as 'mosaiced', but that is not what I tried to translate. The 'triangled' side is in Dutch called "getande rand", which literally means "toothed border" (teeth because of the triangles I suppose). The outside of the checkered floor where the squares are cut in half. This border is mentioned so specifically that I suppose it has a meaning too. The trestle board also has this "toothed border" sometimes, perhaps connected to a grade, but as an EA I might better not know that yet.


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## crono782

Right, what I'm trying to say is that both of what we are saying is referencing the triangled tiled border. Perhaps an early misnomer, who knows. What I should've said was "roughly equivalent to *our* tessellated", but we are talking about the same thing.


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## Roy_

Our instructions would make a floor look like this:





But it is more like this:




(filling the entire floor and without the outer white and black borders, so the last triangles make the 'teeth'.)

Anybody any idea of arguments for either design?


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## crono782

I've seen both here as well. Since as you said the explanation does not distinguish the angle of the squares, I believe both work for the meaning. In the top image, it appears that they used both interpretations of "tessellated" AND "tassellated", hah. In the bottom image, purely from an artistic standpoint, you could not really do the triangle patterned border given the diagonal layout of the checkers so artistic license was used in giving it a solid border. Such is similar to how my lodge room is laid out. Although if you subscribe to the idea that the original wording was indeed "tassellated", then the patterned border doesn't make sense and a solid one is perhaps more representative than the other.

This far removed from the original founders of the Order, I can't say there is more or less merit to one or the other. They are artistically different, but convey the same meaning. Are they not symbols after all anyway, to be taken allegorically rather than literally? Again, I think a large part of it comes down to artistic license maybe.


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## Roy_

Of course they're symbols. At some point at designing a temple, somebody has got to think of how to make the floor though. In any case, my feeling (as a green EA) is that this is what was 'meant':




(see the floor in the temple and the border)

Especially when you think of 'walking square' it is more logical to follow a line. From an esthetic point of view, I prefer the diagonal variant though.

That will be all for today from me for today  (Perhaps I have lead this thread too far off-topic already anyway.)

Thank you for your thoughts.

Roy


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## dfreybur

I take the tessellated border as the side liner brethen at a tiled meeting.  We all face inward towards the altar.  This is one of many symbols for isolating the events within a tiled meeting from the events outside in the profane world.  In the image of the tessellated border we physically turn our backs to the profane outside world as a symbol for metaphorically functioning trying to emulate a place not made by hand.

Outside of our square is the mundane world.  It's not checked because it's morality is foggy and gray.  Inside out square in the mystical space of the tiled meeting.  It's checked because we teach right from wrong.  At the center is the altar, the great lights that set the perfected example of actual good that we try to learn and practice during our time here as flawed beings striving to divest ourselves of our flaws.

The same symbol appears in multiple places.  The perambulation march spirals the candidate from outside in the profane world to inside as a part of the mystical bond.  Jurisdictions that have officers walk inspecting each brother those officers serve as proxies drawing the members from the outside to the inside.  The knocks on the door before and after the tiler opens a transaction with the outside are the crackling of a seal being broken and restored as well as the scripture reference about knocking.

So what do the triangles mean?  We're the people trying to be squares.  We're the ones who have been shown the direction, and that direction is inward both in the lodge and in our hearts.


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## Warrior1256

dfreybur said:


> I take the tessellated border as the side liner brethen at a tiled meeting.  We all face inward towards the altar.  This is one of many symbols for isolating the events within a tiled meeting from the events outside in the profane world.  In the image of the tessellated border we physically turn our backs to the profane outside world as a symbol for metaphorically functioning trying to emulate a place not made by hand.
> 
> Outside of our square is the mundane world.  It's not checked because it's morality is foggy and gray.  Inside out square in the mystical space of the tiled meeting.  It's checked because we teach right from wrong.  At the center is the altar, the great lights that set the perfected example of actual good that we try to learn and practice during our time here as flawed beings striving to divest ourselves of our flaws.
> 
> The same symbol appears in multiple places.  The perambulation march spirals the candidate from outside in the profane world to inside as a part of the mystical bond.  Jurisdictions that have officers walk inspecting each brother those officers serve as proxies drawing the members from the outside to the inside.  The knocks on the door before and after the tiler opens a transaction with the outside are the crackling of a seal being broken and restored as well as the scripture reference about knocking.
> 
> So what do the triangles mean?  We're the people trying to be squares.  We're the ones who have been shown the direction, and that direction is inward both in the lodge and in our hearts.


Sounds good and makes sense.


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## Roy_

Thank you Doug for your thoughts. It makes a nice symbolism of it all. 

As our instructions say nothing of a checkered 'portion' of the floor, our lodgeroom has the complete floor tiled. Of course your description goes well for a threstle board with a tessellated border (around which we form the chain of union).


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## twhaley67

I was told it symbolizes many things, opposites in nature. Day and night, light and dark, good and evil, etc.


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