Black and white, taken individually, have a very rich symbolic history. But when they are set side by side, alternating in a regular pattern, a new meaning is born that neither possesses on its own. The chessboard, the chequered floor, the two-coloured habit become images of duality: the world as a play of opposites that alternate without cancelling each other.
The chessboard
Chess was born in Asia and reached Europe through the Islamic world in the course of the Middle Ages. In the earliest versions the board was not necessarily two-coloured. The use of alternating light and dark squares spread in Europe over the medieval centuries and became the norm.
The game soon lent itself to allegorical readings. In the Middle Ages moral treatises circulated that used chess as an image of society: each piece corresponded to a social rank, with its duties. The board itself could represent the world, with the alternation of day and night, good and evil, life and death. A well-known saying attributed to medieval tradition recalled that, when the game is over, king and pawns go back into the same box.
The chequered floor
The pattern of black and white squares often appears in the floors of churches, palaces and noble houses, especially from the Renaissance onward. Beyond its decorative value, it lends itself to a symbolic reading: whoever walks on it crosses light and dark at every step, as in life.
In the symbolism of speculative Freemasonry the chequered floor, called the «mosaic pavement», holds a prominent place among the furnishings of the lodge. It is interpreted as an image of the duality of the manifest world: light and darkness, good and evil, spirit and matter. The initiatory path unfolds on this alternating ground, and its aim is not to eliminate one of the two poles, but to learn to move with balance.
The Dominican habit
The Order of Preachers, founded by Saint Dominic at the beginning of the thirteenth century, adopted a white habit with a black cappa. White was associated with purity of life and doctrine, black with penance and humility.
A well-known popular tradition played on the friars' name: Domini canes, «hounds of the Lord», that is, guardians of the faith. Iconography took up the image of black and white dogs carrying a torch in their mouths, linked to the story that Dominic's mother, according to legend, dreamed before his birth of a dog with a burning torch. The colours of the habit thus became the very coat of the guardians.
Black and white in Eastern traditions
In other traditions too the black-white pair expresses the complementarity of opposites. The taijitu symbol, the circle divided into a white half and a black half, each with a dot of the opposite colour, has become throughout the world the image of the relationship between yin and yang. The contrary dot at the centre of each half reminds us that no opposite is absolute: each contains the seed of the other.
Pied animals in folklore
In European folklore black and white animals are often ambiguous figures. The magpie, with its black and white plumage, is at the centre of many beliefs: in some regions it announces news, in others it is greeted to ward off bad luck. Its double nature places it between the human world and the mysterious one, between the good omen and the bad.
A symbolic reading
| Image | Meaning of the black-white pair |
|---|---|
| Chessboard | the world as a play of opposites |
| Mosaic pavement | the path within duality |
| Dominican habit | purity and penance united |
| Taijitu | complementarity, seed of the opposite |
| Magpie | ambiguity of the omen |
The lesson these images convey is subtle. Black and white set side by side do not blend into an indistinct grey: they remain sharp and recognisable, yet coexist in an order. Duality is not a war to be won by eliminating one contrary, but a rhythm to be understood. In inner life this means accepting the alternation of light and shadow, of impulse and rest, without demanding that one of the two disappear.
Whoever looks at a chequered floor can remember that each step rests now on light, now on dark, and that precisely this alternation allows one to move forward.
In short
- Black and white side by side become a symbol of duality and complementarity.
- In the Middle Ages the chessboard was read as an allegory of society and the world.
- The lodge's mosaic pavement represents the path within duality.
- The Dominican habit unites the white of purity with the black of penance.
- The taijitu shows that every opposite contains the seed of the other.
