Universal Landscape: Transitions in life, often directly connected to personal growth or assessment.
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]Taking steps towards something; going up or down in life in your own estimation. Running up: escaping from urges arising from lower down in the body; so, a movement of attention towards the abstract or mental, away from fears arising from unconscious or sexuality. Example: T go up the first flight of stairs, then the next, and there is my ex husband s Nan who is dead and whom I have never met. I don’t see her face but I know it’s her. She is a blinding white light and I run down the stairs’ (Mrs H).
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 climbing the stairs, then he is “on his way to the top.” If the staircase is bright and cheery, the climb to the top will be easy and pleasant. But if the staircase is dark and frightening, the dreamer may have to face some unpleasant situations before he gets to where he wants to be.
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]Stairs are often an indication of the steps we must take in order to achieve a goal. Climbing the stairs is indicative of the effort that we must make in order to have access to the more mystical, spiritual side of our being. More simply, it is the exertion we practise in our everyday life – the effort to be ourselves. Conversely, in order to have access to the hidden, unconscious side of ourselves, we need to ‘go downstairs’ into the unconscious.
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]You are in the midst of a transition in life, perhaps directly connected to personal growth or assessment. Climbing up stairs should be interpreted as ascending to higher levels of consciousness. Going down stairs connects to revisiting places 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 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]When interpreting this dream, try to remember your feelings upon awakening. Going up and down the stairs could mean several different things. It could represent changes in consciousness, movement from one inner plane to another, or a change in understanding. In a more material sense, it could represent a rise or fall in economic or social status and the general efforts that are required to accomplish life’s small and large goals. Climbing may represent an achievement of your ambitions and a movement in a positive direction. Descending may symbolize your doubts or a period following hard work and achievement of a significant goal. Generally, dreaming of ascending a stairway connotes movement in a positive direction while descending is indicative of a down period or negative flow of ideas or actions.
See Also: Climbing
[6]Vision: Climbing stairs: you are on a spiritual journey that will lift you above the common confusions of everyday life, but here, too, you will have to deal with obstacles. Walking down a flight of stairs: after much effort, relief is in sight; you are getting back on solid ground. Falling down a flight of stairs: you are either waking up from a dream or will receive painful, sobering news.
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]To dream of passing up a stairs, foretells good fortune and much happiness.
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]This dream follows the general “up” is good, “down” not so good, rule (See Also: the chapter on interpretation); however, as an additional guide: to fall upstairs augurs well for love affairs, and to fall— as opposed to stumble— downstairs is a warning to be less controversial in your expressed views; if you dreamed of sweeping or scrubbing the stairs, you are likely to have an unexpected improvement in your life-style.
[9]Dream of walking up the stairs, and it’s a sign of good luck in your present endeavors. Walk down the stairs, however, and you’ll meet with bad luck and setbacks.
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]Dreams of stairs are classed by some psychoanalysts as dreams of mating, walking up the stairs meaning the urge for sexual intercourse.
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.
[11]1. Climbing up stairs is an indication that all is going well in one’s life.
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.
[12]-To dream of climbing up a flight of stairs means the dreamer will experience a rise in social or financial status. Dreams of descending a staircase represent the dreamer’s need to work through an old issue or situation.
To dream of sitting on stairs sugg
[13]Direction in life. Note condition of stairs, whether rickety or strong.
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.
[14]Climbing or descending a flight of stairs denotes, respectively, a rise or fall in social or economic status.
The same actions may also be interpreted as an increase or decrease in consciousness.
[15]For a person off either sex to dream of walking down stairs is an indication that he or she should be prepared for an unhappy climax to what seemed to be a ¡ove affair of great moment.
[16]To descend a Staircase, your wish will be granted; to descend or tumble down them means the reverse.
[17]1. Upwards speaks of promotion or progress in the spirit;
2. Downwards, moving away from God;
[18]Symbolic of a step by step progression towards a goal in life
[19]See Also: steps, also stairs in buildings
[20]See Also: Room, house, Accessories.
[21]See Also: Buildings
[22]lucky numbers: 05-14-15-22-30-44
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.
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