These days, there is no shortage of Beyoncé news. A little over a week after getting flak for lip-synching the national anthem at Obama’s inauguration, Beyoncé killed it at the Super Bowl halftime performance.
The Twitterverse overwhelmingly applauded Queen Bey’s medley of old and new hits last night, especially when she was joined on stage by her old comrades from Destiny’s Child.
But just as she was wrapping up, Beyoncé made a symbol in the shape of a triangle, using only her fingers. While many, including Yahoo Sports, figured that “she was showing some love to her husband Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, which uses the diamond as its symbol,” others proffered Illuminati rumors. (And some sorority girls squealed that Beyoncé just gave Tri-Delta a shout-out on national television.)
The native Houstonian has been believed to be a part of the Illuminati, a secret society spearheaded by the cultural elite and dating back to the late 18th century. Historically, the Bavarian group was for influential thinkers and artists seeking to infiltrate every aspect of society—finance, politics, art, etc.—in order to institute a New World Order.
Its modern function is a bit more simplistic: those rumored to be tied to the Illuminati (and that list curiously includes rappers, George W. Bush, and the Pope) hide their membership in the top-secret organization by flashing telltale Illuminati signs on the world’s biggest stages (aka, Beyoncé’s triangle at the Super Bowl.)
Other imagery suspected of being Illuminati symbols? The goat-adorned clothing and accessories in music videos and songs by Rihanna and Lady Gaga. The goat supposedly pays homage to Baphomet, a pagan idol connected with Satanism. There are entire websites devoted to recording instances of conspiratorial, Illuminati-themed emblems in present-day pop culture. Some YouTube videos accuse former Texas Congressman Ron Paul of being an Illuminati fixture. And don’t forget the President.
One libertarian-rooted group, the “Elect a New Congress” super PAC, is so convinced of Beyoncé’s affiliation with the Illuminati that they boycotted the halftime performance, cautioning viewers about Beyoncé’s “subliminal message.”
Some even took to Twitter to suggest that the 34-minute power outage at the Super Dome was somehow linked to Beyoncé’s sign.
“Beyoncé flashes illuminati symbol, lights go out, and come back on at 9:11 #o”@SpencerMcMahon3
“The illuminati turned off the lights, Beyoncé throwed the sign up then gave the eye signal,”@JosephG_
“Beyoncé would be perfect of she didn’t sell her soul to the devil #Illuminati,”@jennyschultz3
Gawker’s Taylor Berman wrote this last night before CBS released a statement about the power outage:
Well, that was one way to quiet the lip-synching haters/give credence to rumors of Illuminati: Minutes after Beyoncé’s inspired performance and just moments after a record-setting kickoff return from the Baltimore Ravens’ Jacoby Jones, power went out in over half of the Superdome… So far, no official reason has been given but, for now, certain groups are denying responsibility:
It wasn’t us.
— TheIlluminati (@TheIlluminati) February 4, 2013
But of course, they would say that. And just before the blackout, Twitter went down. Let no one ever question Beyoncé’s power again.
Daniel D’Addario at Salon supposes that Beyoncé and her counterparts, namely, her husband, Jay-Z, exacerbate the rumors on purpose, just for shock value. “The celebrities fan the flames a bit, too,” he wrote, quoting Jay-Z:
“I said I was amazing, not that I’m a Mason / It’s amazing that I made it through the maze that I was in,” rapped Jay-Z, acknowledging the case against him even as his fans throw up a sign that conspiracy-minded folks allege is that Masonic “eye inside a triangle.” Beyoncé’s one-eyed shoes seem like a fairly deliberate provocation given a portion of her audience’s fixation on Masonic symbolism. Beyoncé and Jay-Z may be setting themselves up for critique, and examination, and obsessive documentation.”
And for Beyoncé, more publicity has never been a bad thing.
