This week, Beyoncé released her seventh studio album, Renaissance. Soon – if the hidden messages in the album’s various promotional images are correct – will come the end days prophesied in Revelation.
Or at least that’s what some people believe. Social media has been telling us for years that Beyoncé is a member of the Illuminati. Now the internet is adding an addendum: These days, Beyoncé isn’t necessarily trying to run the world — she’s just trying to tell us it’s over.
It started with the horse statues. the cover of Renaissance is a striking shot of a largely naked Beyoncé with heels atop a silver horse. This month’s cover British Fashion is a striking photo of Beyoncé riding a red one. News week explains the rest: “In July 2020, Beyoncé sat on top of a white horse in the black is king film and in August 2022 she posed with a black horse for Harper’s Bazaar.” It’s a simple enough comparison: Beyoncé. Horses. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – one on a white horse, one on a red horse, one on a black and one on a pale horse. Pestilence, war, famine and death. If they appear, it means that our earthly world is over.
At least a TikToker explained that Beyoncé was tipping her hand about: the impending literal update of the Bible book of Revelation (a third of the world dies instantly and all) because “they [vaguely defined “they,” presumably Illuminati-adjacent] tell you what’s on the agenda next.” If you want to dig deeper, you can lose yourself in a 42-minute YouTube video that promises “Beyoncé OPENS Demonic PORTALS in JULY.” (There are only a few days left in the month; she’d better hurry up.)
The writer Titi Shodiya, who is analyzed Beyoncé’s career on the podcast parse, says the era of the Beyoncé Apocalypse is a natural continuation of the era of Beyoncé Illuminati. “She’s so good at what she does, she has so much influence and power, everything she does is so exquisite,” Shodiya says. “Most people don’t understand how someone can get it right every time. To compensate for our own insecurities, we must project. We say, ‘It’s impossible. There must be some kind of magic involved, or the Illuminati.’ But really, it’s because she works really hard, she’s very serious about her job, she takes her time and she surrounds herself with people she trusts and who are also very talented.”
Beyonce is too good. She is not fallible. She’s not really one of us. Sprinkle in the horses and the worn-out history of theorizing around the superstar, and it’s actually not that big a jump to “Beyoncé Repents the End Times.” To be clear with something so important, I ask the Beyoncé expert in attendance bluntly: So is Beyoncé telling us the apocalypse is coming? “No, I don’t think so,” Shodiya laughs. But “I’m open to other interpretations.”