The Mosaic Pavement

In the third degree tracing board it is said the Mosaic Pavement was for the High Priest to walk upon! Well I do not want to frighten the reader with this first paragraph yet to the uninitiated in pure

freemasonry this paragraph is the only thing to read after several washings and purifications against the great day of …well is the Mosaic actually a magical circle used in interdimensional travel? Or

But, for us, the uninitiated in pure freemasonry  the words “walk upon” imply much much less 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.

*For Just a Master Mason these words would suffice*

This symbolically represents the diverse character of the life we lead with its dark and light periods, its difficulties and achievements, its promises and disappointments. But what of its origin and why has

it been deemed so important, being used, not only in the tracing boards but in the design of Lodge carpets.

In the middle of the 16th century, after Henry VIII had at last reluctantly accepted the need for a Bible in the ‘vulgar tongue’ i.e. English, new translations of the scriptures began to flourish. In 1560 the Geneva version Bible was published, so called because the translators of it had been exiles in that city when it was being

produced. One of the new features of this particular Bible were its illustrations, the first to appear in any printed Bible. These

illustrations were all, of course, in black and white since no

printing press at that time could produce the coloured pictures of the earlier monastic documents.

Thus whenever the Temple of Solomon, or even Solomon’s house and throne are shown in these pages the floor is always depicted as made up of black and white chequered squares. Thus was born the 17th century idea that this was the correct indication of the Temple of Solomon. There might be medieval towers, characters in medieval dress, or even a long Christian type altar but to make sure that the reader knew it was the Temple of Solomon the floor was black and white mosaic squares.

In the first chalk floor drawings in early lodges, tracing boards and then lodge carpets, for Masons the mosaic pavement was then the only way to depict Solomon’s Temple. It was called ‘Mosaic’ because in that same Bible the precursor of the Temple was the Tabernacle in the wilderness built by Moses on God’s instruction. The floor of the same holy meeting place was also always shown as black and white squares

and referred to as mosaic.