In a past post (qv), I wrote that "of the four possible orientations of the ROTA, the only one I can't think of any good reason for is the one actually used by Lévi and Waite, with T at the top!" Now a possible rationale for it has occurred to me.
Notice that the wheel is apparently turning counterclockwise: the snake on the left is descending, and the cynocephalus on the right is ascending. So the letters ROTA correspond, respectively, to the low point, the descent, the high point, and the ascent. Lévi had already identified the A and O of ROTA as corresponding to alpha and omega -- representing the beginning and the end. It seemed to me that the T and R ought to correspond to some similarly fundamental opposition, but nothing came to mind until today. T and R correspond to the Hebrew words tov (טוֹב, "good") and ra (רַע "bad/evil"). Obviously, the top of the wheel represents good fortune; and the bottom, bad fortune. One starts at the bottom, rises (alpha, the beginning), reaches the top, and then falls (omega, the end).
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