Introduction

I found in the c. 1838-1840 edition of Le Grand Eteilla, ou l'Art de Tier les Cartes, by "Julia Orsini" (probably a pseudonym) the following picture. It purports to be the original layout of the cards as wall images "on the right of the Temple of fire at Memphis."

The first 21 cards form an inverted pyramid of sorts, with the Fool (78) as the apex and merging with some of the suit cards (54-62) as the base. The 21 are divided into the first seven, the next five (8-12), then the next group of five (cards 13-17), and a group of four (18-21). They are in numerical order except for three cards: 1, 8, and 15, all in the same column, out of order, likely for some special purpose. I notice that exactly seven cards separate each from the one before or after.

In addition, there are four other inverted quasi-pyramids, each with an odd multiple of 7 at its apex. The other four images in each quasi-pyramid start with the number after an odd-numbered multiple of 7.

Then along the sides we have three more groups of nine cards, each in consecutive order going down from the number just below an odd-numbered multiple of 7.

It looks at first glance like homage to the number 7. Obviously only the pyramid-obsessed ancient Egyptians could have thought up such a clever arrangement. QED.

The signs of the zodiac seem to have been added by a 19th century artist.

Later I found the same diagram in a 1785 book by Etteilla himself, minus the signs of the zodiac but with some very strange signs instead. Online, it is appended to the end of his 4th Cahier, at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3128878/f1.planchecontact. You have to scroll down to view 262. The diagram, and next to it the title page (undated) for a book for which only the "Avant Propos" appears, in 8 pages. It

Here is the diagram and the next page, in a better copy (I can't recall where I got it):

So what are those signs around the border? Are they supposed to be letters in some "divine alphabet"? Or s set of alchemical symbols? A wide variety of both were present at the time, but I can't match them up with any I have looked up.

I found another title page for this same book, giving a later date than that of the 4th Cahier. There's no author listed, but since Etteilla is referred to as the author on the page to the left,I think it's safe to assume it's by him.The left hand page corresponds exactly to the last page in the Gallica version already linked to. But then it goes on for another 94 pages. It is the continuation of what was started in 1785, I presume.