In mythical times, when man lived in perfect harmony with the cosmos, the

games have a sacred character, and they are not the simple distractions that man of
Today consider. Chess has preserved vestiges of that sacred character.
The origin of chess belongs to a time immemorial, thus different traditions have
situated in its remote past. The most widespread version about the birth of this
game, it is said to be originated in India and was transmitted to medieval Western
between the Persians and the Arabs. However, this modern theory forgets that in
our Hermetic Tradition we find in the 'Phaedrus or On Love', as spoken by
Socrates, Plato, places the birth of chess in Egypt, with the god Thoth as its
inventor.
The game of chess is a representation of a cosmogony, where two players
they confront each other with their respective armies, updating the cosmic drama of duality,
on a square and cobbled pavement, made of alternating tiles
white and black.

Illustration of "The Book of Chess". J. Cessoli

The board, place where
develops the plot of the game, it is a square, a geometric figure with four equal sides that
its expression of the quaternary, and it conveys the idea of harmony, order and
balance, which is why it is associated with the symbol of the earth. In this way, the
man is inscribed within the vertical and horizontal sides, limited by the
coordinates that represent space and time.

In the civilizations
Traditionally, the figure of the square was considered sacred and held a magical charge.
inherent. To trace the cosmogonic map where the game of chess unfolds, the
square is symmetrically multiplied until reaching a grid of eight
base columns, a number that inspires an intermediary or transitional symbolism,
between the square (earth) and the circle (sky), with the consequent priestly burden that
this entails.
Thus the board is divided into a grid of 64 squares, within a diagram.
of eight by eight squares, the same construction that has the magic square
alchemical of Mercury-Hermes, whose function is in addition to being an instructor and educator,
initiatory, and therefore transitional and intermediary between Gods and men.

Magic square of Mercury.

We invite readers to "play with the numbers"
That in the Tradition
Hermetic, Mercury-Hermes, initiator in the mysteries, is related to 'Hod', the
sefirah number eight of the Tree of Life, and its magic square is a grid of
64 squares are in perfect harmony with other traditions such as the Chinese, where the
64 hexagrams of the I Ching derive from the eight initial trigrams, which in turn
they arise from the original binomial, the duality.
Furthermore, the board has an inherent cyclical nature, a fact that is manifested in that
64 is an integer submultiple of 25,920, the number of years of precession.
equinoxial, and that for the Hindus corresponds to the duration of the golden age of a
Manvántara.
 Tree of Sefirotic Life
On the other hand, the character
the cyclic nature of the board is observed when we decompose 64 as 6 + 4 = 10, which is associated with
a return to the origin, which corresponds in the Tarot with the arcana of The Wheel of
Fortune, equivalent to the Wheel of Samsara for Buddhists. In this arcana,
announcer of a new cycle, there are two animals spinning on the wheel, one ascends,
another descends, like the two armies that battle in chess, upon them there exists a
motionless sphinx, symbol of the four elements, also associated with the four sides
that limit the board. We must transcend this reality that limits us, where thanks to
Through initiation, we can ascend to other states of Being.
 The Wheel. Arcana No. 10 of the Marseille Tarot
If we observe that the
the squares of the board are divided into 32 white squares and 32 black squares, and
What are the 32 pieces with which the game begins, the relationship with Jewish Kabbalah is
makes it more evident, where we find that the first words of the Sefer Yetsirah are:
With 32 mystical paths of Wisdom,
Yah recorded,
Lord of the armies,
God of Israel.

This is related to the 32 times that in the first chapter of the Torah it appears
name of God Elohim, and they manifest as the ten sephirot and the 22 letters of the
Hebrew alphabet, which constitute the manifestations of understanding, configuring
thus the 32 paths of wisdom that must be opened by each individual, like routes
personal towards knowledge, discovering each one their own and unrepeatable
pilgrimage towards freedom.
Freedom, inherent to the Unique Principle, the metaphysical unity, whose first emanation is
duality. God one, and dual, like the two halves of the world's egg for the
Egyptian and Hindu traditions, such as the Platonic primordial androgen, the yin-yang of the
Eastern tradition, such as the juxtaposition of white and black colors of the
symbolism of the chessboard.
Thus, in chess we learn that light and darkness, day and night, good and
bad, they oppose each other, but they also complement each other, because one does not exist without the other, like
It happens with all pairs of opposing and complementary aspects of this sexual universe.
 Chess. Flanders
The harmonic alternation
of the colors black and white, shows us the manifest complementation of the
opposites in the universe. The arrangement of the cobblestone pavement of the loggias
Masonic, analogous to that of the chessboard, has its equivalent in the symbol of the
Yin-yang, which clearly illustrates the idea of duality and complementation of the
opposites, where the interpenetration of the two aspects is analogous to the symbolism of
checkerboard pavement. There is also a metaphysical meaning in the colors.
white and black, René Guénon pointed out to us that white symbolizes the manifested and the
the unmanifested black. In fact, white, which is truly colorless, is the source
original of the entire color spectrum, given that colors are nothing more than the product of
a refraction of that white light, which itself encompasses them all, while
the total absence of light would be black. Due to this correspondence, white is
refers to the earth, the manifested, and the black to the sky, the unmanifested, what grants it
a character opposite to the apparent initial meaning.
In chess, we observe the existence of castes, represented by the different
functions that the figures perform in the cosmogony of the game.
The division is into four castes, corresponding to the natural hierarchy.
existing in all traditional villages.
The King represents the priestly or Brahmin state, the heart or spirit of each
army that must be protected, the essence of the game, without which it would have no meaning.
battle.
 King of Chess of Charlemagne
She carries on her head a
crown, which reproduces the circular shape of the sky it symbolizes, being the crown the
a sign that confirms the possession of a true inner royalty, which will allow him/her to
govern in order with Divine Will.
The symbolic root of crown, 'k-r-n', comes from the same root as Cronos, skull,
horns, or the Greek word 'Karn', which is the pinnacle of the Sacred Mountain
Hyperborea. In fact, Kether, the Unity, the highest sefirah of the Tree of Life
Sephirotic, it is the crown that the Adam Kadmon, or primordial man, bears.
Jewish tradition.

His position at the start of the game is central, on a square of the opposite color to his.
conjugating the opposites like this, and with the possibility of moving in all directions
a box around it, which gives it a circular movement over it,
Ray, the Spirit, the center around which the compass revolves, symbol of his Intelligence.
Divine.
It is interesting to observe how the possibilities of its circular movement remain
registered in a three by three square, the magic square of Saturn, of movement
slow but intelligent and thoughtful, like the King of chess.

Magic square of Saturn, or natural square.

The magic square of
Three base columns have nine squares inscribed inside, it's curious.
relate it to the ninth card of the Tarot, the Hermit, which represents an old man
wise, an inner master, who is also associated with Cronos, Time, which
devours its children. Thus, the movements of the King must possess as qualities more
you notice patience, experience, solitude, and wisdom, just like Saturn,
Cronos or the Hermit.

Arcana No. 9 of the Marseille Tarot

Each of the aspects
divine beings are considered endowed with a unique energy or power, to which the Hindus
they are called 'shakti', and are symbolically represented by a feminine form,
thus the "shakti" of Shiva is Parvati.
 Queen. Chess of Charlemagne
The Lady, the element
female of the board, it is the King himself split into a woman, the concentrated energy of the
Ray, the Queen transforms her, agglutinating all the expansive force of creation, like
a source of pure, overflowing, and imperishable water, like Jupiter, progenitor of all
the gods, lover of life and merciful Lord of the world.
Thus, the movements of the Queen are formidable, in any of the eight directions.
directions that surround her, with the only limit being the board of existence.
The divine game consists of the creation, sustenance, and dissolution of the universe, as well as
the ties that bind devotees to Samsara, the cycle of successive births and
deaths. She is the Universal Energy, one with the Supreme Being, and so she is contemplated and
adored.
In the Holy Roman Empire, the greatest currency is love, the 'hieros gamos', marriage.
sacred of the King and the Queen. The King symbolizes spiritual power, the Queen on the other hand
represents temporal power. The function of temporal power will always be to protect the
spiritual power.
In fact, the King's crown was traditionally represented with a cross on its part.
superior, symbolizing spiritual power, on the other hand the lady, although also
crowned, lacked this symbol, thus associating it with temporal authority
exercised by the warrior King.
That the origin of the game may be Brahmanical responds to the Principle, but it is a game.
destined for the kshatriyas, as it belongs to the field of action.
So in India, this game was also known as "chaturanga," which means
"four members", and there is a similarity between the chess pieces that accompany the
King and Queen, these are bishops, knights, rooks, and pawns, with the four members of
army in India, elephants, cavalry, combat vehicles, and infantry.
 Possible version of Chaturanga
In the same row where
They place the King and the Queen, there are three pairs of figures that possess an interesting
symbolism, with each figure of the couple occupying a black square and a white one, and
surrounding the Royal couple that is in the center.
The bishop is the closest to them, not for nothing is it also referred to in many places as
dolphin, which means prince, reason why he is closer to the king and queen
than any other piece.

Celtic knight
Don Alfonso X The Wise
in his 'Book of Chess', he represented these figures as elephants holding
on their backs a small tower where an archer was located. Indeed, the word
The term alfil seems to derive from 'hasti' in Sanskrit, to 'pil' in Persian, and to 'fil' in Arabic, which
it means elephant, and if we place the Arabic article 'al' before it, it becomes
the current bishop.

Alfil: Chess of Charlemagne. Italy, XI century

But although the game of
chess seems to have been introduced in Europe and in Spain through the Arabs, and
that this in turn came from India, if we remember the mythical origin of the game, which
Plato placed it in Egypt, through its inventor the god Thoth, it is important to emphasize.
the true origin of the bishop or elephant.
The ammonites referred to an oracle as "AlphaoAlphi" (the Voice of God). In Egypt
the main oracles were the sacred bulls 'Apis' and 'Mnevis', which is why it was
It is common to refer to the two sacred bulls of Memphis and Heliopolis as 'Alpha' and 'Alphi'.
As a result of this, Plutarch, commenting on the letter 'Alpha', explains that the Phoenicians
they call the bull 'alpha', thus we have to understand that its meaning was also that of an oracle,
or that of an oracular animal. Thus, the 'aleph' of the Jews represents the head of an ox,
and it is the first letter of its alphabet, very similar to the first letter of the Islamic alphabet,
"alif". These meanings, "Alpha or Alphi", applied to the bulls "Apis" and "Mnevis",
Egyptian words were taken by the Phoenicians to adopt them.
first to the oxen, 'alpha', and then to the elephants, 'elaph', true root
from our current bishop.
 Egyptian board game. Senet
If the universe is a
speech provoked by the expansion of the verb, and the relationship of this is significant.
figure with the oracle and the first letter of the alphabet, in the bishop manifests the quick
vehicle of the Spirit, thus in chess it can move any number of squares in
diagonal, like the wind that blows where it wants.
The chess bishop would resemble the Christian figure of the bishop, and in fact it does.
represented in Europe, or also the Fool of the Tarot, who with his staffs are
true figures of union between the earth and the sky, thus receiving heavenly effluvia.
In this way, the bishop would be related to Mars, which is linked to expansive energy.
of Jupiter, the Queen. It is not surprising then, that words like alfino or alfiero, which
they mean 'favorite of Mars,' and they come from Greek, having a very similar root, and
a common origin, similar to that of the bishop.

Alifl: 1.Inglaterra S.XII 2.Escandinavo. S.XIII

In many traditions to
horse has been associated with the sea, the same Poseidon, god of the sea, was also the
god of horses. The passage of waters in the symbolism of the horse is crucial.
In the Greek or Hindu initiation rites, the sacrifice of the horse was common, and the
initiates used to cover themselves with horse skin. Thus we observe how the horse is
related to the transition from one state of Being to another.

In chess, the knight

describe a movement in 'L', bouncy, like that of a flame, similar to the element fire,
revealer of the power of the Spirit.
The horse always ends its move on a square of the opposite color.
game, and in a row or column different from the initial one, which inspires the idea of a step
from reality to another different one.
In Homer's 'Iliad', the conquest of Troy by the Greeks is forged thanks to a
wooden horse, which suggests to us the possible transition from the Bronze Age to that of
Iron is also linked with the symbolism of the horse.
In each army of the chess game, there are two knights, occupying columns two and
seven, each resting on a different color. In the 'Phaedrus or On Love', Plato
inspired by Homer and Orpheus, symbolically represents the soul through a
a carriage drawn by two horses, where the coachman represents Thought that directs,
and the two horses at the beginning of life or passion and ardor.

1.Lewis Island.
Charlemagne
Also in the Car of
Tarot, we observe two horses of different colors that seem to be heading towards.
opposite places, but to which the royal coachman directs correctly, conjugating
the opposites and uniting contradictions, to overcome the upcoming obstacles of
path, thus beginning a journey related to the new birth, inherent to the
initiatory process.

Arcana No. 7 Marseille Tarot

The space where
the game is framed by the towers, which are located at the four corners
of the board, angular elements that enclose the set of pieces within the
sum of its four angles of 90º, that is, 360º, thus indicating the elevated nature and
cyclical chess, thus limiting space and time in the game.
The towers placed at the corners thus define the board, four pillars on which
the game settles, the world, like a great inner castle, a fortress, so much so
that the King, through the magical castling, can hide or protect himself in one of
they.
In fact, the tower is a symbol of the column, the axis, a vertical element by
excellence, like those built by ancient societies in harmony with tradition, and
which they called obelisks, symbols of the axis of the world. The opposite of
those other towers, like the Tower of Babel, which is destroyed by the pride of its
builders, just like what happens with the tower of destruction in the Tarot.
Each army has two powerful towers, one on a white square and the other on one
black, pointing out the dual character present in the development of the manifestation, and
linking them, due to their binary aspect, with the two columns of the Masonic temple,
representation of the two columns of the Temple of Solomon, or with the two columns of
Hercules, and of course with the two columns of the Sefirotic Tree of Life, signifying
the Rigor and the Grace, constitutive of Creation, which must always be present in
our jobs.
 The Kabbalistic Tree of Life, with the representation of the
columns, and the plans. They are therefore true.
passage doors on the path of knowledge, authentic pillars of Wisdom, like
that of the two columns built by Enoch that withstood the flood, and that
it contained in its engravings the essence of primordial knowledge, representing this
as a spiritual and initiatory center for future societies. Analogous to what
they represent the Sacred Books in different traditions, they are also, therefore,
true pillars of knowledge.

Torres: 1. Scandinavian piece 11th century 2. India 16th century

3.Spain
It's not surprising.
So, let the King use the Tower in the castling as a loyal defensive ally. To the
just as we must emphasize that in the attack, thanks to its overwhelming movement, it is a
lethal piece, in fact the rook is along with the queen, one of the only two pieces with the
that the King can give a checkmate alone, without any need for help or support,
other figures.
The pawn of chess has the same meaning we give to a worker, and this to his
sometimes has the same connotation as the mason, which in true works must
desbastar la piedra bruta, afín de despojarla de sus asperezas, acercándola a una forma
in accordance with your destiny.
It is a job full of setbacks, where multiple difficulties mark the pilgrimage.
from the initiated towards Knowledge, towards Freedom. Thus in chess, at the beginning of
game, the pawn heroically contemplates in front of him, with courage and resignation, at a
powerful army that seems indestructible.

Pawn. Chess of Charlemagne

The eight pawns that
each army is formed, they are located in the second row, having behind them one of
the figures-symbols in particular, which will confer upon her a series of qualities, a baggage
on a singular journey, in its slow, but without return, with no possibility of going back, path
towards the battlefield, towards Freedom.
 Pawns their trades. Chess Book. J. Cessolis The pilgrimage of the
pawns in chess, it is full of sacrifices, true sacred acts, for which
many of them will perish, by virtue of a common end, of a higher enterprise, being
really to the order with the Spirit.
The Creator is present in all of Creation, but without constituting any of its parts.
in particular, just as happens in chess, where the board, the pieces, and of course
The players are nothing more than an expression of the image of the cosmos, and of reality.
transcendent, product of an original idea that develops around a center.
In fact, the purpose of each of the elements of chess is to remember and
represent the cosmos.
Anonymous engraving. 16th century
The legend says that in traditional societies, the priests and the wise,
true experts of the metaphysical realm were those who educated the caste
warrior in the practice of chess, understanding it as a means of knowledge, and
also as a representation of the cosmos, where creation is a singular struggle and
complementation of opposites, where day and night, heat and cold, light and the
darkness, good and evil, mark a sacred battle.
The book of chess, dice, and board games.
King Don Alfonso X The Wise In the Puranas, all the
gambling is absolutely prohibited by Manu, however, the
"Chaturanga" or chess, was taught by the Brahmins. Thus, for the Kshatriyas, the
war is a sacred activity, with which one fights against what truly is not, and for what
Being is affirmed so much. It is also a ritual to which they surrender their destiny, in order to...
inherent practices of their trade, being able to achieve fulfillment in this realm of the
manifestation.

The book of chess games, dice, and tables.

King Don Alfonso X The Wise By the arrangement of
chess, where a series of elements, opposing and complementary, engage in a great
battle, the war, with all its symbolism, represented in the cosmogony of the game, is
a form of manifestation on the path of knowledge, in the journey towards the
identity of Being, the true knowledge of the Self.
In battle, as in pilgrimage, multiple sacrifices must occur, as in
Truth occurs in the game of chess, to overcome what certainly is not, and thus
to recover, to recognize, our true identity, defeating the old man, in order to give
space for the birth of the new man.

Pedro Abío