‘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 a number appearing in the New Testament Book of Revelation 11:1, where the evil 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, it is not specifically the number 11 or 42 that Kubrick draws our attention to, nor Revelation 11:1, since he also overtly refers to the number 237 as well (the number of the haunted room at the Overlook Hotel where the former caretaker Grady murdered his twin daughters). No. Kubrick really directs us to the numbers 2 and 3, or 23. Let us begin with these formulas:  

11 = 1+1 = 2

2+3+7=12=3

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

2+3+6=11

So, we have something of a loop going on, but one in which references to 2 appear almost everywhere if you look carefully (and not only in obscure numerological clues). For instance, Danny wears a sweater about the July 1969 Apollo 11 flight; the girls murdered by Grady were twins; and the infamous 'continuity errors' that appear to have been deliberately made by Kubrick, such as missing double light switches, double plug sockets, the disappearing chair in a scene, and so on.

All of these clues point to a bigger picture concerning the nature of numbers as forces. In this instance, 2 is the number of chaos, and imbalance; The number 2 represents man's imprisonment in materiality and susceptibility to malefic influences (it is the number of discord caused by the clash of opposing forces, such as good and evil; light and dark, life and death etc; and which are allegorised by the twin pillars of  Freemasonry, the Temple of Solomon, and in the ancient Hermetic principle of “as above, so below”).  The void and the creator Spirit.  So 2 is a very powerful and potentially destructive number unless it is countered with a harmonising third. The number 3 emanates from 2 and results in balance. It is the number of action. 

We notice in the movie that, while there are groups of 2, such as the twins, Danny and Wendy, the ghostly bartender Lloyd and caretaker Grady, there are also groups of 3 arising by the addition of a third to them. Examples include Grady and his two daughters; Jack and his family; and the hag in room 237, who is the third revealed ghost forming an unholy triumvirate with Lloyd and Grady. 

By numerological deduction, the numbers 2+3 become 5; and 5 represents the number of discord and chaos (except in the Pythagorean system, where it is seen as a positive, generative number, representing balance). 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.

In a sense, 5 or 23 are the numbers of materiality and of the energies influencing our lives.  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,a s 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=3.

1+9+2+1=13=4.

3+4=7.

So 7. But – and here is the interesting bit - the previous prime number to 7 is 5. The next prime number after it is 11. Together with 5, 7 forms a pair of twin primes. The date of the 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…  …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 are gathered in The Overlook Hotel, itself a metaphor of the world we occupy beset by influences from beyond 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.

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

Article (c) M.R. Osborne 2025