We hope to ascend to what?

We aspire. I know we do, because it says so in the Fellow Craft ritual. It says we hope to ascend. Not that the rest makes sense but if you think about it, really think about it- it does make sense.  I wasn't there during the thoughtful development of Masonic Ritual.  It makes sense no errant clergyman was able to expedite unnoticed our system of ritual as he had with the craftwork- technical stuff. Too much scrutiny and accountability I'm afraid.  Every mature, thoughtful person understands potential untapped, somewhere in there; in the consciousness of being. If we thought about such things, such questions would fit into our awareness of agency.  What is that difference between the untapped you and competitive achievement?  Or are we imprisoned by emotional rectitude, by experience, my birth, and rank?  Don't think for a moment, everyone who aspires to self-improvement will be a high achiever. Some of us are more equal than others. As much as we talk about it, many societies are rooted in misogyny, gender bias, gentrification. In that regard, Freemasonry is an outlier, perhaps THE outlier.  The subtlety is not lost on us. What if- to achieve understanding we needed to enter a place in the mind that we don't usually understand or acknowledge? Thanks to the minds that formed Freemasonry to meet a need, the same time period that gave imagination a boost in the arts and sciences also gave us fundamental knowledge of the mind. One aspect is cited in the Fellow Craft ritual. We aspire to enter a mind palace.  Mnemonics. How do law clerks and interns learn some much detail?   How could a Freemason expand his capacity to learn?  Where we do commit work to memory, we know our capacity to learn increases. It becomes easier to commit longer passages to memory.  In that moment, we learn that reciting is not understanding. It is a tool, a means to an end- a key