My apologies 'frelkins'.
I will elaborate in somewhat clearer language.
Dummett, in
The Game of Tarot gives us a simple and obvious way to clearly understand the 22 Triumphs when he points out that of the dozen or so historical orderings, it is
the three virtue cards that differ the most from ordering to ordering, and by removing them, a common and obvious order is easily seen.
The first group of six cards, including the Fool, remain constant with the exception of La Papessa who in one ordering or another is placed in every possible slot above the Juggler and below the Pope. Here we see a medieval social hierarchy.
The second group of six always starts with The Lovers and the Chariot paired, usually with the Chariot trumping the Lovers. Time and Fortune again are paired in every ordering, sometimes reversed in their ordering. The Traitor and Death always end this section. Here is an allegory of human life, from our first love to our death.
The last group of seven is the most constant, always starting with the Devil, then the Tower, the Star/Moon/Sun , then ending with the pair, Judgement and The World, with Judgement trumping the World in the Bolognese deck. Here is a medieval vision of the spiritual cosmos.
Those new to Tarot who want to learn more about the historic meaning of the Triumphs can do so at Michael J. Hurst's excellent sites:
http://www.geocities.com/tarot.history/mendicant/MendicantsTale.html
http://geocities.com/cartedatrionfi/
Michael Hurst draws a parallel between the middle section of the trump cycle and Boccaccio’s
Fall of Princes motif. So in my above diagram the middle trumps run
reverse to the bottom and top tiers (since they are supposedly falling from of the usual direction). This results in a classic sinister/dexter division, with the left being malefic, and the right being benefic, a common device of Western art.
I speculate that the vertical rows may also contain an intended message, and this may in fact be the reason behind the position of the Papessa, and indeed the three virtues, in the Milanese ordering. (I won't go into that now however.)
As reflected in my diagram the three virtues and the World are separated. The virtues move freely between tiers in the various orderings, and thus seem to have been seen to be apart from any of the three specific tiers, and the speculation and opinion on where they should fall was the main reason the orderings differed.
On the positions of the virtues in the Milanese ordering, Bob O'Neill points out,
"According to the Life of Pythagoras by Iamblicus, the soul was composed of three hierarchical levels. The lowest or animal soul was concerned with appetites and governed by the virtue of Temperance. A second part of the soul was concerned with ambition and power and was governed by the virtue of Strength or Fortitude. The highest soul was the rational soul that sought after wisdom and cultivated the virtue of Justice to balance the parts of the soul and the individual human with other humans and the universe. The three virtues are discussed in three consecutive chapters of Iamblicus which was readily available at the beginning of the 15th century."
http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/virtue
So, the Fool and Juggler (and the cards in the vertical columns above them) could be representative of the lowest soul - the animal soul, the Papess and Empress with the second soul - ambition and power, and the Emperor and Pope with the soul of wisdom. This works even better with the Eastern ordering of the trumps, the so called 'B' ordering -
The Fool/The Juggler = The Soul of Appetites = governance by Temperance
The Empress/The Emperor = The Soul of Will = governance by Fortitude
The Papess/The Pope = The Soul of Wisdom = governance of Justice
Or, as Plato said in
The Republic,
"Then we may begin by assuming that there are three classes of men - lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, lovers of gain?"
Anyway enough background. About the timing question. The
A-B alternating timing aspect draws from both the alchemical and geomantic traditions, and is of course totally speculative, though a good deal of thought went into the choices.
The cards labeled
A are passive, slow of speed, long of duration, and difficult to change. The cards labeled
B are active, fast of speed, short of duration, and change easily.
Taking a querent's question into consideration and applying an appropriate range of possible timings, a general judgement can be predicted with ease. I've had very good results with this simple method.
A Charmed Fool,
RaH
Cheers,