Another wide subject. Steps in Freemasonry come in a variety of forms and meanings. When you look online for Freemasonry and steps, you usually get an image with different degrees. Three steps for the “craft”/”symbolic” degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason) and more steps for other degrees in whatever system is portrayed.
But you also have three steps in many lodges. The Worshipful Master sits three steps higher than floor level (both officers sometimes two steps). At other times steps refer to the Liberal Arts that Freemasons are supposed to study.
Three steps can refer to youth, (wo)manhood and old age (also see three candles). Seven steps can refer to: “the 7 stages of our life on our way to spiritual joy.” (A. & A. R. The intermediate Degrees 19º – 29º A.C.F. Jackson (1982)).
On the image above, a text is written on the steps for entering the Museum of Freemasonry (and the main seat of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands) in Den Haag (The Hague, La Haye) in the Netherlands:
Vrijmetselarij kweekt verdraagzaamheid
betracht rechtvaardigheid, bevordert
naastenliefde, zoekt wat mensen en
volken vereent, tracht weg te nemen
wat de geesten en gemoederen verdeelt
en brengt tot hogere eenheid door het
bewustzijn levend te maken van de
allen verbindende broederschap
Freemasonry breeds tolerance
practices justice, promotes
charity, seeks what unites people and
peoples, seeks to remove
what divides minds and spirits
and brings about higher unity by
consciousness of the
all uniting brotherhood
Entrance of the Museum of Freemasonry, Den Haag, the Netherlands