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(Date Posted:07/09/2005 20:03:01)
To followers of mythos, it isn't called a black and white pattern, but a checkerboard pattern. This is what you will see it referred to in primary examinations.
The pattern is related to the number two, the Gemini myth, and the contradictory and contrasting forces of life , and the duality of human personality. We each have our good points, and our negatives, without that juxtaposition, we are not human.
The universal meaning, or primary myth, is that it is nature in balance.
Positive/Negative
Good/Evil
Light/Dark
Spirit/Matter
Faith/Science
Polarity.
Together, black and white represent the germinal, or primal, stages of process and it's ending which is illumination or purification. In other words, without both black and white, there can be no outcome. Everything starts with black and white.
They also represent a sorting process that leads to transformation and, as such, suggest life cycles and evolution.
In early Christian art, black stood for penitence and white for forgiveness.
In heraldry, which is literally the telling of a family history through color and art, the use of black and white together is called "embattled", meaning the truest forms of color are at war with each other.
Until the later part of this past century, black and white checkerboard was often used in courtrooms in the Western societies of Europe and the Americas, because it was felt that liars would out themselves on the level playing field of neutrality.
Balance.
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-Brax | 
