The first song on the album is called “Pray You Catch Me”. This is the song that represents the stage of intuition. Religion is seen in the first word of the song title, pray. The second song on the album, “Hold Up”, starts off with a monologue by Beyoncé. She says “I tried to change, closed my mouth more, tried to be soft, prettier, less awake. Fasted for sixty days, wore white, abstained from mirrors. Abstained from sex, slowly did not speak another word. In that time my hair I grew past my ankles. I slept on a mat on a floor.I swallowed a sword, I levitated into the basement, I confessed my sins and was baptized in a river. Got on my knees and said, “Amen.” And I said ‘I mean’. I whipped my own back and asked for dominion at your feet. I threw myself in a volcano. I drank the blood and drank the wine. I sat alone and begged and bent at the waist for God. I crossed myself and thought I saw the devil. I grew thickened skin on my feet. I bathed in bleach and plugged my menses with pages from the Holy Book. But still inside me coiled deep was the need to know. Are you cheating on me?”. This monologue takes place during the chapter of denial. This could mean that when Beyoncé was in denial over Jay Z’s infidelities she turned to religion be become “better” so that the reality of the situation would just go away, i.e. Jay Z would stop cheating.
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