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.
The Superior Planets are most efficacious; the inferiour are weak, and easily do suffer by the Superiours, and receive good or ill from them. - William Lilly (1602.-1681.)