I thought I had it made with Pips as Trumps. Hey, it seems to make sense, and it is totally intrinsic to the deck. Nothing esoteric about it. But then, how can I turn off my brain, when it knows about The Pattern on the Trestleboard and all that to which it relates? Pips as Trumps then lands the Pips squarely where they belong on that unmentionable diagram of Athanasius Kircher. Aaaarrrggh!
I've laid out my TdM deck according to the Pips as Trumps scheme and am looking at the internal logic now. My list has the Fool at the beginning and Strength and Justice swapped. I put the last two back in their traditional places but didn't know where the Fool should go to be correct, at the beginning or at the end.
I see that there are two distinct sets - Batons and Cups, and Swords and Coins
In the first set the Batons count down (X - I) from the Fool, and the Cups count up (I - X) from the Juggler. It looks like the Cups start in the second row so the series will end with X at the Wheel of Fortune. Each ascending and descending pair adds up to ten.
The Valet of Batons is at the beginning of the set, next to the X of Batons, its logical location, The Valet of Cups is at the end of the set, next to the X of Cups, again its logical location.
The next line in from both ends is skipped as far as Court cards. I'm not sure why. Next come the King and Queen of Cups in the third and fourth rows from the Fool end, followed by the Knight of Batons in the fifth row. Its not clear why the jump from the Cups royal pair to the Knight of Batons.
From the Wheel of Fortune end, the King and Queen of Batons are in the ninth and eighth rows going backwards, preceded by the Knight of Cups in the seventh row. Similarly, it's not clear why the Batons royal pair is accompanied by the Knight of Cups.
The Swords and Coins follow this same structural pattern.
It looks like the matching of the Trumps to the ascending and descending pairs and triplets is just an accident of the alignment of the Trumps and pips according to the numerical progression of each. Up to the Wheel of Fortune, each Trump has at least one pip of the same numerical value associated with it. Is that the primary pip in each case?
The way I have it laid out, the Juggler, the Pope, the Hermit, the Hanged Man, the Tower and Judgement have no court card associated with them. The Juggler, the Hermit, the Hanged Man and Judgement have Aces instead. The Pope and the Tower, being at the center of their respective sets, only have the two Fives of the associated suits.
If I have to relocate the Fool to the end, the other Trumps will all slide up one notch.
The only thing that's not clear to me, other than the correct placement of the Fool, is why the Court cards are arranged the way they are. Is there a logical code to their placement that I'm not seeing?
Also, am I correct in saying that the pips aligned with each of the Trumps will take on some of the broader meaning of that Trump? Is that how this is supposed to work in making the non-scenic pips more sensible to interpretation? I'm not sure what the Court cards gain from the relationship since they already have useful correspondences.