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Rating: 
Summary: Outing The Real You
Review: For journal writers who need a push to get going this is a perfect little set of inspiration. "Inner Outings" is the perfect tool to have on hand for those days when journaling seems like drudgery. The Book of Exploration contains suggestions for keeping a diary and how to develop the best writing technique for your life. The book explains the cards otherwise you might be lost without it. The cards are pretty and creative but make little sense on their own standing. With titles like "A Gift For Me" and "Doorways" you would have to be very creative to find inspiration from the cards alone, but with help from the book you will discover that "A Gift For Me" could be a prompt to write about a great gift, a person, a talent, who you are a gift to, your ten best gifts and so on, while "Doorways" become real or imagined and open or closed. Once you run through the cards a few times the process gets a little easier and journaling much more interesting and individual. We all wake up in the morning, go about our routines and fall into a deep slumber at night, but with this set next to your journal you might surprise yourself with how interesting you really are.
Rating: 
Summary: The cards are absolutely beautiful. . .
Review: For me, the beauty of the cards are absolutely worth the money you pay . . . Your heart will be moved by pictures of collages with words in script . . . "Celebrating my strengths" . . . "doors" . . . "Trust". . . "love" . . . "Curiosity." If you are a professional who uses cards like this to stimulate clients' creativity or thought processes, GET this deck. I've used it in small groups for interfaith spiritual growth, and each time the cards have helped people go more deeply and gracefully into their spirit. Now -- the book, on the other hand, is same-old same-old stuff about journals. Another person's take on "how to do it." But with the cards so great, who cares? Buy this deck.
Rating:
Summary: The cards are absolutely beautiful. . .
Review: For me, the beauty of the cards are absolutely worth the money you pay . . . Your heart will be moved by pictures of collages with words in script . . . "Celebrating my strengths" . . . "doors" . . . "Trust". . . "love" . . . "Curiosity." If you are a professional who uses cards like this to stimulate clients' creativity or thought processes, GET this deck. I've used it in small groups for interfaith spiritual growth, and each time the cards have helped people go more deeply and gracefully into their spirit. Now -- the book, on the other hand, is same-old same-old stuff about journals. Another person's take on "how to do it." But with the cards so great, who cares? Buy this deck.
Rating:
Summary: Outer Limits
Review: For people who have writers block: This book will completely turn you around!! This guide helped me feel more creative than I ever have. The cards are beautiful, and each chapter has insightful questions and ideas that are neither too specific nor too vague. Your journal can be anything you want it to be--how great! This book is perfect for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: creative explosion!
Review: I love this book - it really helps you to begin a writing when you are faced with that blank page. The collaged cards are an added bonus and such a unique format to accompany a book on journal writing - they are really quite beautiful! A must have for a beginner or an experienced journal writer. After using them myself, I have bought three as gifts.
Rating:
Summary: Inner explorations
Review: The "Book of Exploration: Using the Inner Outings Method and Diarist's Deck of 33 Cards," by Charlene Geiss and Claudia Jessup, includes 33 cards. Each one is colorful and decorative, and each one has a phrase on it. You mix the cards up, pick one, and use it to spark your journal-writing for that day. The cards are huge--these are definitely larger than any tarot cards I've seen! This means they're nigh-impossible to shuffle. However, they're also incredibly beautiful. They layer images of leaves, puzzle pieces, and so on with unusual papers, paintings, and scenes. The words and phrases are interesting, with such examples as "Choices," "Crossroads," "Doorways," "My greatest fear," and "Explore the Possibility." They're a bit on the abstract and generic side, but if you haven't journaled before and aren't sure how to start, then I think they'll give you a nice push. While the cards are inspiring, the book is less so. The introduction by Charlene is warm and friendly, but other parts of the book devolve into clinical seminar-speak. The language would feel at home in a sterile $19.95 video tape for sale on an infomercial, not in a book that started out with warmth and presents such lush cards as inspiration. The book briefly addresses why it can be helpful to keep a journal, and what you can get out of the experience. The brief sections and thoughts provided to go with each card (like a tarot deck's accompanying book) are nice, but they stick to the shallows for the most part, with a few easy suggestions and minor thoughts to help you out. The best section in this book is the one on writing techniques--I hadn't thought much about the variety of ways in which one can approach journaling, and this section definitely inspired a few ideas. This set would help someone who wants to journal but isn't sure where to start. The cards would make nice prompts for any sort of writer. And lastly, the set makes a great collector item for someone with a taste for beautiful tarot-like cards. For the experienced journaler, however, this set doesn't offer much beyond the writing techniques and the pretty pictures. I'd give the cards five stars and the book three; in the balance I'll average it out to four.
Rating:
Summary: Inner explorations
Review: The "Book of Exploration: Using the Inner Outings Method and Diarist's Deck of 33 Cards," by Charlene Geiss and Claudia Jessup, includes 33 cards. Each one is colorful and decorative, and each one has a phrase on it. You mix the cards up, pick one, and use it to spark your journal-writing for that day. The cards are huge--these are definitely larger than any tarot cards I've seen! This means they're nigh-impossible to shuffle. However, they're also incredibly beautiful. They layer images of leaves, puzzle pieces, and so on with unusual papers, paintings, and scenes. The words and phrases are interesting, with such examples as "Choices," "Crossroads," "Doorways," "My greatest fear," and "Explore the Possibility." They're a bit on the abstract and generic side, but if you haven't journaled before and aren't sure how to start, then I think they'll give you a nice push. While the cards are inspiring, the book is less so. The introduction by Charlene is warm and friendly, but other parts of the book devolve into clinical seminar-speak. The language would feel at home in a sterile $19.95 video tape for sale on an infomercial, not in a book that started out with warmth and presents such lush cards as inspiration. The book briefly addresses why it can be helpful to keep a journal, and what you can get out of the experience. The brief sections and thoughts provided to go with each card (like a tarot deck's accompanying book) are nice, but they stick to the shallows for the most part, with a few easy suggestions and minor thoughts to help you out. The best section in this book is the one on writing techniques--I hadn't thought much about the variety of ways in which one can approach journaling, and this section definitely inspired a few ideas. This set would help someone who wants to journal but isn't sure where to start. The cards would make nice prompts for any sort of writer. And lastly, the set makes a great collector item for someone with a taste for beautiful tarot-like cards. For the experienced journaler, however, this set doesn't offer much beyond the writing techniques and the pretty pictures. I'd give the cards five stars and the book three; in the balance I'll average it out to four.
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