‘The Shining' and the 23 Enigma 

Stanley Kubrick's 1980 ‘The Shining' contains significant numerological references. It is often pointed out that the movie focuses on the numbers 42 and 11. 11 is the number of death in the Rosicrucian tradition. As for 42, it is also a number appearing but the once in the New Testament. In the Book of Revelation chapter 11 verses 1 and 2 we read that the rule of the Beast of Armageddon will last 42 months:

“Then the angel gave me a measuring rod like a staff, saying, ‘Arise and measure the temple of God, and the altar . . . and they shall trample upon the holy city for 42 months.'”

In truth, Kubrick's message is not specifically related to a arithmomania with the numbers 11 or 42. Kubrick is way more subtle that that, despite overtly directing us to the number 237  (the number of the haunted room at the Overlook Hotel where the former caretaker Grady murdered his twin daughters; and where the woman appears to Jack Torrance). Indeed, 237 = 2x3x7 = 42).  But no; Kubrick is really pointing us to the numbers 2 and 3, or 23. Let us begin with these specific numerological additions and reductions:  

11 =  1+1 = 2

2+3+7 = 12 = 1+2 = 3

42 = 4+2 = 6; and 2x3x7 = 42 = 4 + 2 = 6 (NB. 6 is divisible by 2 and 3)

2+3+6 = 11

The key, for want of a better word, to the door of room 237 is contained in a basic understanding of numerology, and, indeed, of Pythagorean mathematics. In both, all numbers are reducible to the decad, or first 10 numbers (in reality the first 9, because 10 in completion reverts to 1). For Pythagoras, all things were made of numbers, which contain sex energy or generative forces of the opposing principles found in nature. Thus, even numbers were feminine/passive, and odd numbers were masculine/active. In Pythagoras' system, 5 represented harmony, because it was the sum of the numbers 2 and 3. To re-enforce this idea, Pythagoras taught that 2x5 or 10 was reducible to 1 (because 10 = 1+0 = 1). It led to the perfect number. However, 11 represents duality (after all, there cannot be two monads or two perfect numbers).  Thus, it results in 2 by addition; and these twin forces therefore compete with one another in a form of sex energy that can have but one consequence - friction leading to outcome.

References to the number 2 appear almost everywhere you care to look in the movie (and not only in obscure numerological clues). For instance, Danny wears a sweater about the Apollo 11 moon landing; the girls murdered by Grady were identical twins; and the infamous continuity errors that may have been deliberately left by Kubrick point to duality, such as missing double light switches, double plug sockets, and the disappearing chair, and so on. All of which points to a much bigger picture concerning the nature of numbers as forces. Indeed, 2 is the number of chaos, and imbalance, and represents man's imprisonment in materiality and his susceptibility to malefic influences. It represents the clash of opposing forces, such as good and evil; light and dark, life and death etc. This is allegorised by the twin pillars in Freemasonry, the pillars in the Temple of Solomon, and the ancient Hermetic principle, “as above, so below”.  This is why the Rosicrucians thought of 11 as an "evil" number. It follows that 2 is a very powerful and potentially destructive number unless countered with a harmonising third, its outcome. The number 3 emanates from the 1+1 formula, and can bring either balance or destruction with it; since it is the number of the triumph of production or action (be it good or bad). 

We also notice in the movie that, while there are groups of 2, such as the twins, the unit of Danny and Wendy, the demonically antagonistic bartender Lloyd and the ghost of Grady, there are groups of 3 arising by the addition of a third in each of them. Examples include Grady and his daughters; Torrance and his family; and the psychic Hallorann, countering the unholy duopoly of Lloyd and Grady. 

By numerological addition the numbers 2+3 become 5; and 5 represents the number of discord and chaos (except in the Pythagorean system). Like the number 2, 5 has potentiality and energy inherent within it, which may result in either good or evil outcomes. Will chaos or order succeed?  That is the age-old question, and the riddle of the 42 days' rule of the Beast in Revelation in 11:1-2.

In a sense, 5 or 23 are the numbers of materiality and of the energies influencing carnal life.  Is this a coincidence in the film? Well, there are far too many of them in ‘The Shining' to ignore. For example, the number 237 is very prominent in the movie. Whether these are separate numbers, 2,3,and 7; or 23+7;  or 2 + 37,  they all become 3 by numerological reduction. And 3, as we have observed, is the number of outcome.

What are the particular qualities of these numbers in combination? An important clue lies in the old photograph of the Hotel Ball at the end of the movie, which we shown took place on 4 July 1921.  These numbers reduce to 7 by reduction, as follows:

4+7 = 12 = 1+2 = 3.

1+9+2+1 = 13= 1+3 = 4

3+4 = 7

So 7. And note also, 7 results from the date of the lunar landing referenced on Danny's sweater: July 20, 1969 (2+0+7+1+9+6+9 = 34 = 3 + 4 = 7).  But – and here is the interesting bit - the previous prime number to 7 is 5. The next prime number after it is 11. So 7 sits in a triumuvirate of prime numbers 5, 7 and 11.  Add them together, what do you get? 23.  Together with 5, 7 forms a pair of twin primes. The date of the hotel ball then, is a cleverly concealed pointer to the numbers 5 and 11. A play on 23, and to the causal duality it represents.

So, what are we to make of the hidden references to these numbers?  We now know that the numbers 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 appear in the movie by numerological reduction  But are there any associate properties connected with the combination of these 5 numbers? Well yes. Add them all up…  …and you get 23. 

The numbers 11, 42 and 237 are therefore devices concealing the 23 Enigma hidden, as if in a maze, by Kubrick in the film. The enigma itself is concerned with chaos or dystopia represented by the imbalance of the number 2. Yet the energies of 2 in opposition are in movement, and, as we all know, energy must go somewhere. It must have an ‘out'.  It is the resultant outcome which the number 3 represents. This is why divinity expresses itself as being in Trinity or Trimurti; and why the Trinity is mocked by the forces opposed to good (is it any coincidence that the hour at which Christ died 3PM, is also the witching hour of 3AM for demonic visitation?).  The outcome of the energy that is 2+1, 5 or 23 is therefore either the triumph of order over chaos or an opposite, negative consequence. In the case of ‘The Shining' it is Jack's failure to repeat Grady's crimes which results in a rebalancing of the forces at the hotel.

In ‘The Shining' we see how the negative influences are concentrated and gathered together in The Overlook Hotel, itself a metaphor of the world we occupy, beset by good and evil influences operating themselves upon it. The genius of Kubrick was to expand Stephen King's novel into something truly special, since the movie has become an esoteric masterpiece and a masterclass on the occult. Thus, returning to the passage quoting the period of Satan's 42 month period of ascendancy in Revelation, we can now see that Kubrick's inference of chapter and verse is not coincidental: 11: 1-2.. The passage references a "measuring rod", suggestive of the use and force of number in a specific locale (in this instance The Overlook Hotel, and not the holy city). But, that's the point of an allegory, after all. And, as for clues, there are 42 cars in the hotel car park; Danny wears a short with 42; Wendy watches the movie "Summer of '42" on her TV, plus many other express references to the number. It follows that the focus of the movie is about room 237 and what it represents - or contains. We recall that 237 is 42 by multiplication; 6 by addition; and 3 by numerological reduction. It may contain a portal of some description, possibly to Hell itself. The forces present in the room seep out into the hotel, and are the result of actions brought about through the insinuations of evil on the minds of those most susceptible to it. 

More on the 23 Enigma can be found in my book Brazen Serpent: Chaos & Order.

Article (c) M.R. Osborne 2025