The Ascendant Sign: Don’t Blow my Cover!

Question: I frequently see people downplaying the ascendant and its relevance in a chart. It’s sometimes referred to as a mask, a superficial layer that someone throws on when you first meet them. I’ve even seen some claim that this aspect of the chart is false and that you are a blatant knockoff of the sign. While I get the concept of the ascendant as a mask, because I imagine the soul is rather big and can take on a…