Dreaming Lens: Were you climbing the stairs? Were you ascending or descending? Where were the stairs leading to and from? How many steps were there? What step were you on? What shape were they in? Were they steep? Were they dangerous? Did you slip or fall?
Personal Focus: Stairs represent transition, change, and personal growth. When we use them, we make direct contact with our feet. This makes them symbolic of change on a very specific, personal level. Climbing up stairs should be interpreted as ascending to higher levels of consciousness. Going down stairs connects to revisiting places you have already been or moving into lower levels of thought, such as anger and envy, or facing your own emotional development by revisiting old issues.
Where the stairs are is important to consider. A stairway in a home is about personal transitions, whereas stairs in public environments reveal issues around how we operate out in the world, in full view of others. There may be literal elements of this image in a dream, as a dream that takes place on a stairway at your workplace will likely connect to issues that are work related. A stairway in a public park may reveal shifts that involve issues of relaxation and leisure. Use the Dreaming Lens to focus your interpretation.
Your actual experience of climbing the stairs is the key to working with this symbol. A treacherous experience may reveal fears attached to issues you are currently facing. Running up and down stairs with ease may point to an ability to operate at different levels with grace if your life is calling you to do so. Fear of where the stairs may lead correlate to investigations that lay ahead of you where the outcome is not clear. The number of stairs, if known, can be considered using numerology (See also: Numbers). Escalators indicate more ease in the transition, but must also be looked at in terms of the potential to gloss over the change that is occurring. Remember that going down is as important as going up in life. We must often revisit where we have been below before we can move upward effectively. Eventually, we must be able to easily exist on many levels at once. [1]
The example shows how going upstairs can be an opening or widening of awareness to include areas of expenence usually avoided. In fact Mrs H takes her awareness down to more everyday levels to escape meeting the light.
Example: ‘1 climb a few flights of stairs. As I go up, the stairs stan wobbling and breaking up. At the top the last flight breaks away from the landing and I am left to cross a gaping hole with a few bits of debris to cling to.
It is very frightening, but I see other people passing me on the caved in stairs and on to the landing as if nothing has happened’ (Maureen). Lack of confidence, a fear of failing or not being capable is also a common feeling in connection with stairs. Maureen sees life as full of pitfalls. [2]
If the dreamer is descending the staircase, and the staircase is a pleasant one, then he may soon complete a difficult task and be able to relax for awhile. But if the staircase is dark and gloomy, or the dreamer is falling down the stairs, then the dreamer may be in danger of being “on his way down.” Look to other symbols in the dream to judge how this can be prevented.
If someone known to the dreamer is either climbing or descending the staircase, depending on whether the dreamer is at the top or the bottom, that person is either rising or descending to meet the dreamer.
If an unknown male figure is either climbing or descending the staircase, then the dreamer’s intellect will be challenged in some way.
If it’s an unknown female figure, then emotional matters will either rise to a major turning point, or fall to a level of normalcy. Astrological parallels: Saturn, Uranus, Pluto Tarot parallel: The Wheel of Fortune [3]
A golden staircase is such a basic image, with so many interpretations, that particular attention needs to be paid both to other aspects of the dream, and also our spiritual state at that specific time. Largely it represents a ‘death’, but not necessarily a physical death.
It is more the realization that we no longer need to function solely within the physical or material realms but can move towards a more fulfilling life.
It is a way out of the mundane. [4]
A stairway in a home is about personal transitions, whereas stairs in public environments reveal issues around how you operate out in the world, in full view of others. There may be literal elements of this image in a dream, as a dream that takes place on a stairway at your workplace will likely connect to issues that are work-related.
A stairway in a public park may reveal shifts that involve issues of relaxation and leisure. [5]
See also: Ladder, Steps, Spiral Staircase.
Depth Psychology: Stairs are either a sign of your desire for ecstatic sex or for more influence, power, and authority. Do you want to get to the top? If your climh up the stairs is easy, you will gain new insights. [7]
If you fall down stairs, you will be the object of hatred and envy.
To walk down, you will be unlucky in your affairs, and your lovemaking will be unfavorable.
To see broad, handsome stairs, foretells approaching riches and honors.
To see others going down stairs, denotes that unpleasant conditions will take the place of pleasure.
To sit on stair steps, denotes a gradual rise in fortune and delight. [8]
If you should stumble and fall upward on the stairs then you’ll have a happy marriage or relationship. Falling down stairs warns you to be more conventional in your attitude and lifestyle or risk falling into disrespect. [10]
The boundary or passageway between the levels of consciousness (such as mental and spiritual).
See also: Climbing, Descending, Ladder, Passageway, Basement, House, Building [11]
A traditional meaning of the same dream predicts great good fortune and unexpected pleasure.
To walk down the stairs, bad luck in business and in love.
To fall down the stairs, enemies will cause many obstacles. [12]
2. Climbing down stairs may indicate that one has failed at a particular thing.
3. Climbing down stairs may indicate that one is giving the reins of one’s job or other endeavor to someone else. [13]
To dream of sitting on stairs sugg [14]
If going up, the right direction; if down, wrong direction. Running up and down, you need clarity; make up your mind and get on with your life. [15]
The same actions may also be interpreted as an increase or decrease in consciousness. [16]
2. Downwards, moving away from God; [19]
becoming dizzy on the: a premature, severe turn downward for a seedling venture.
climbing of your house: progress in overcoming al obstacles to your ambitions.
with others: wil share your heights with loyal friends.
descending: disappointments in business and social status.
with others: check your partner’s lack of contribution to the venture.
falling down the: own envy wil cause you to be drawn into a conspiracy.
of a broad staircase: wealth and honor as you absorb another’s conscience into your own.
scrubbing the: your children wil gain in stature and status.
short, a: are not exerting your influence when appropriate.
steep, a: overexertion over an extended period can cause a physical harm.
stone, a: wil take al of your heroism to free your work from another’s credit.
very high: wil attain wel -deserved credit at work and be jilted by your lover.
wooden, a: your errors and careless gestures are jeopardizing your career. [24]