Recall that we have previously said that in 1977, the year in which The Shining is set, that Susan Robertson, who is 24 years old, is seven years younger than Wendy (31 years old); Susan's son (6) is seven years younger than the son of the woman who was in the red VW (13); and Jack (wearing Charles Grady's face) looks seven years younger in the ending photo (39) than he does as we see him throughout the movie (46). Kubrick's consistent usage of a 7-year age gap in The Shining, is meant to suggest the 7 days of the tale of the Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz,[a] with Jack representing the Paschal (i.e., sacrificial) lamb from the seventh day of the wedding. Susan Robertson was 17 years old when Charles Grady killed his family (and himself), so Charles represents the Paschal lamb from the first day of the wedding. In fact, this is one of the main reasons Susan placed Charles' face over that of Jack (i.e., that of Jack as we know him throughout the movie) - both men depict Paschal lambs from the Chymical marriage of Christian Rosencreutz. Also, as we said in part 16 of the analysis, Wendy, representing Susan, wants to alchemically unite with her son via a 'chemical marriage' - this is the same thing as 'chymical marriage'. Below is the opening sentence of The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz:
"On an evening before Easter-day, I sate at a table, and having in my humble prayer conversed with my Creator and considered many great mysteries (whereof the Father of Lights had shewn me not a few), and being now ready to prepare in my heart, together with my dear Paschal Lamb, a small, unleavened, undefiled cake, all on a sudden ariseth so horrible a tempest, that I imagined no other but that, through its mighty force, the bill whereon my little house was founded would fly all in pieces."[b]
a. The chymical marriage is sometimes called the chymical wedding.
b. The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz in The Real History of the Rosicrucians, Arthur Edward Waite, 1887, at sacred-texts.com.
