A.E. Waite was Freemason and it's common knowledge that his poular Tarot deck was loaded with Masonic imagery.
Masonic lodges have black and white checkered floors, the floor representing the material plane and the colors black/white representing opposites of extreme. For Masons it's a symbol for the unpredictability, unevenness, instability, and transcience of this life. We can also see this meaning reflected in the English language when we say someone has a "checkered" past.
Robert MaCoy in his Dictionary of Freemasonry says, "Hence the lodge is furnished with mosaic work to remind us of the precariousness of our state on earth; today our feet tread in prosperity, tomorrow we totter on the uneven paths of weakness, temptation, and adversity." And, "While we tread on the mosaic, let our ideas turn to the original which it copies; and let every Mason act as the dictates of reason prompt him, to live in brotherly love."
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