A staircase in a dream often traces the shape of personal progress -- climbing usually points to ambition or effort paying off, while descending can reflect a turn inward, toward memory or self-examination rather than outward achievement. A staircase that never seems to end may be naming a goal that still feels far off.
In the world many evils will happen, when in one month there shall happen an eclipse of both luminaries; chiefly in those places subject to the sign in which they happen. - William Lilly (1602.-1681.)