Re: The ordering of the trumps
Posted: 24 Jun 2009, 10:04
I think the numbering 6/9/7 is just a descriptive analysis, not a statement of potential symbolic significance.
The cards Devil-Angel/World are unbreakable, the only variations being the supremacy of Angel or World, and the B placement of the virtue Justice between Angel and World (for this reason, and the fact that Temperance is placed between the Pope and Love - i.e. obviously a crude moralistic arrangement -, I think most commentators believe B cannot be the original order. One argument would be that God's Justice is presumed in Judgment, so there is no need to make it explicit; a corollary is that if the weighing of souls were intended, the Archangel Michael would have been portrayed, not the conventional image of the cardinal virtue Justice).
The sequence Devil-Fire-Star-Moon-Sun is also invariable (excluding the Minchiate, which is the exception which proves the rule, since all of Minchiate's extra cards are placed in a single chunk between the casa del diavolo and the Star).
The Fool need not be included in the numbering - it could be described as 5/9/7 plus a Fool. The point is descriptive - it just describes how nothing from the first 5 ever goes into the other two sections; nothing from the 9 ever goes into the first or third sections (excluding Justice in B); nothing from the Devil to the World ever goes into the other two sections. There are just three sections, and that happens to be the number of cards in each.
The cards Devil-Angel/World are unbreakable, the only variations being the supremacy of Angel or World, and the B placement of the virtue Justice between Angel and World (for this reason, and the fact that Temperance is placed between the Pope and Love - i.e. obviously a crude moralistic arrangement -, I think most commentators believe B cannot be the original order. One argument would be that God's Justice is presumed in Judgment, so there is no need to make it explicit; a corollary is that if the weighing of souls were intended, the Archangel Michael would have been portrayed, not the conventional image of the cardinal virtue Justice).
The sequence Devil-Fire-Star-Moon-Sun is also invariable (excluding the Minchiate, which is the exception which proves the rule, since all of Minchiate's extra cards are placed in a single chunk between the casa del diavolo and the Star).
The Fool need not be included in the numbering - it could be described as 5/9/7 plus a Fool. The point is descriptive - it just describes how nothing from the first 5 ever goes into the other two sections; nothing from the 9 ever goes into the first or third sections (excluding Justice in B); nothing from the Devil to the World ever goes into the other two sections. There are just three sections, and that happens to be the number of cards in each.