Each set within the cards show a set story or a progression, so that one card leads into the next.
As such there a 3 stories - the Story of Major Arcana, the Story of the Court Cards and the story of the Minor Cards
The generally story lines I`m about to explain are the stories that I have found as a progression from one card to the next, and I'm not being arrogant enough to say that they are the only story, just the one that found me first :-)
Minor cards
ace - realisation that a new start is needed
2 - getting started - slightly nervous anxious
3 - getting into the swing - quite a comfortable position
4 - a safe point where has learnt enough to be able to pause for a while without loosing the benefits of the previous cards
5 - trying to get back into it, usually a point where its showing that due to the pause/break its taking some time to get back into the swing
6 - back in the swing and things are going fine
7 - the point where inspiration is lost, as with anything there is usually a point when you approach completion where you find yourself unsure of what you need to do next, and that is this card
8 - inspiration returns and you know what to do
9 - doing it and the heightened excitement of nearly being finished
10 - breathing the sigh of relief that it is finished.
Court cards
this story needs to be modified depending on how the cards in the deck are laid out. The Crowley Thoth deck which I use works as follows
Knight - You are trained in dealing with one situation and are good at it, but cant apply yourself well to other tactics. lets face it, a knight is great if you have a fight, but ask him to plough a field and his tactics or charge and strike no longer work
Princess - a bit more flexible than the knight, can turn her hand to different things, but is flighty, and never spends enough time on one thing at a time to get it sorted, but flits between all the problems/issues doing enough to keep them ticking over, but by the time problems 1 and 2 out of 5 have sorted themselves out, problems 6 and 7 have turned up, so there is always the same amount of things on the going all the time
Prince - more organised than the princess, prioritises the issues and deals with the most drastic first and gets it out of the way before moving on, so with time everything is dealt with before it escalates
Queen - she can take down the gods to achieve what she wants
With both the minor cards and the court, the pattern works no matter what the suite, its just the suite will indicate the area.
For example, the 7of cups would show a loss of inspiration. As this is to do with emotions, its indicating that its being taken for granted, that what you have isn't being cared for properly, while moving on to the 8 shows the inspiration as being its now time to put away the comfort blanket that you used to have, and step out on your own etc
Major Arcana
As these are the major archetypes, I'm only going to get it started, as this is one story that I do feel you really need to work out for yourself.
The fool - youthful and care free, going on whim
The magician - with some knowledge the youth moves on to being the magician, suing what he has learnt to try and make himself appear even better than he is, a case of misdirection to look good
The high priestess - with time, he finally realises that it's a waste of time and rather pointless, and as such starts to be an impartial source of advice
the empress - progressing on to being impartial to more of a mother figure caring for those who come for advise
etc right up to the universe of understanding who you are and where you fit in with everything around you.
Working on a story basis has several benefits, as when you look at your spread and see a 5 of cups/swords/wands/discs you know that they have had a period where they have sat on their laurels taking a break and are trying to get back into, but finding the flow isn't far away etc
