Aces symbolize beginnings, the start of something new and the seed of new growth. Swords represent reason, thought, logic, will, courage, verbal skill, matters pertaining to the mind and survival in the world and the element of air. The Ace of Swords often represents new ideas, new thoughts and concepts or learning to express yourself in a new and different way.

"You are aware that you could create new beliefs, attitudes and opinions within yourself.  In fact, you might already have planted the seeds for the creation of these new beliefs.  A different world-view or philosophy is possible." - Gail Fairfield

Looking at the shadowy, dark figure on the Wormweird Ace of Shadows seems ominous and scary.  Reading the Codex reveals this is the Masque of Madness, and the doesn't engender any warm and fuzzy feelings.  According to the deck creator, Shadows are associated with Air and Wands.  However they really seem more Swords than Wands to me so I've decided that for my purposes Shadows = Swords and Flames = Wands.  This reversed Ace of Shadows makes me think that I"m not addressing the Masque of Madness I wear in my own life.  Have I been touched by manic inspiration?  Has madness moved me to consider options that I've been avoiding before?

Even the figure on the All Hallows Ace of Swords wears a half-mask hiding a portion of his face.  This suggests that I'm masking or hiding something from myself.  Madness is sometimes simply seeing things from outside the box; being willing to explore the fringes and outer lands that most of society avoids.  It reminds me of the movie Interstate 60 where a young man finds the answers to his questions by exploring an unknown highway that is only traveled by those willing to risk having their eyes open to the societally accepted lies we tell ourselves.  It's really an amazing movie, and funny too.  It's fully of mental mind-fucks and with each one we learn some new lesson about ourselves and life.

So maybe what I need to consider here is how I'm mind-fucking myself.  Am I seeing red spades as hearts simply because that's what I've conditioned myself to see?  Maybe I need to don this mask of madness and see the world from a different perspective so that I can break free from my self-imposed limitations.  I like the fact that despite his upside down position, the masked figure on the All Hallows Ace of Swords manages to hold his sword upright.  It seems ready to be put into action, but its reversed position suggests that what I need to cut away is internal rather than external; my own blinders rather than anyone else's.  

Once again I think this card and its message tie into the overall theme I've been sensing this month - that I need to stop limiting myself based on my own expectations and self-doubts.  The only reason I've resisted establishing myself as a professional Tarot reader is because of my own doubts and fears.  I've trapped myself into seeing me in one way and trying to move beyond that has triggered some defenses I didn't even realize I had.  Wearing the mask allows me to break free of some of my own expectations.  I can take on a persona that I've never considered before.  In many ways this reminds me of Rachel Pollack's exercise at RS 2009 where she had us create our own fortuneteller persona.  I had a difficult time with it because pretending and role-playing has always seemed silly to me.  Now I realize what a useful tool it is for exploring new aspects of myself and expanding my views about who I am and what I can achieve.  And that is much scarier than the Masque of Madness.