#sacred new beginnings that became my religion

[teeteepeedee]

okay and i also want to pull at the thread between “sacred new beginnings that became my religion” in cornelia street and the whole Jehovah’s Witness suit of it all

[thetorturedchairman]

oh oh… I’m falling in love… oh no…. I’m falling in love again………..

[fearsomeandwretched]

Listening to Cornelia street and got sad

[crunchycrystals]

thinking about her again

[septembersghost]

Cowboy Like Me has always been Mcwexler’s song and now I can’t stand that it’s gone from the happy interpretation of the song to the sad interpretation

YOU AND ME BOTH 😭💔💔💔

it's something i love about the song itself, whether they end up together is up to the listener, maybe she chooses to stay with him and they make their way forward despite the obstacles set against them (that was all before i locked it down), and forever is the sweetest con because they pull it off. his boots beneath her bed, they kiss and it's a wonder of the world. she's never gonna love again because she found everything she needs! or she's reminiscing about this magnetic, lawless love that lingers on despite them parting, and forever is the sweetest con because they tricked themselves for a while into thinking it could work, only to fall apart. she's never gonna love again because no one will ever be who he was, no one will see the truth of her again, takes one to know one.

it is the ultimate song for jimmy and kim in my heart, these two con artists who move guardedly through the world until they find connection and vulnerability with one another! who weren’t looking for love and then fell headfirst into it and understood each other’s truth!, (also the fact that the song begins after the story’s started, just like they have a whole history before the beginning of the show), and it aches that it's now the tragic version. never wanted love, just a fancy car...the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to mess this up...

you're a bandit like me, eyes full of stars, hustling for the good life - never thought i'd meet you here. it could be love. we could be the way forward.

and i know i'll pay for it.

[swiftful-thinking13]

my best friend is in London right now and she just sent a video in the gc of her walking down our old street in front of our old flat

[double-knots-archive]

steve: just some guy

also steve: gets to date a literal 350+ yr old human witch who knows emperor belos’ weaknesses & knows some earth shattering secrets & has literally punched the emperor in the face at least once

also also steve: is still just some guy

[midnightsslut]

religion is one of the most prominent recurring themes on the album, and it has been present in some capacity for quite a few records now. taylor previously compared love to religion: her saving grace, her belief system, and a fated divine intervention (false god, cornelia street, and cruel summer are the best examples of this). ‘sacred new beginnings that became my religion’ and ‘we’d still worship this love even if it’s a false god’ are two of the defining statements about her philosophy on the lover album.

taylor doesn’t want to leave all of that behind on ttpd, at least not at the beginning. the first supernatural force she mentions is the spaceship on down bad, which she compares to a skylight of freedom in the epilogue. *something* has finally come to save her from her life of suffering. she doesn’t care if it’s a force of good at first; if anything, she’s just fine being taken away by aliens. she views this man as her destiny. it isn’t until guilty as sin? that taylor starts to ponder the moral implications of what she’s doing. is she guilty as sin for wanting to leave her previous religion and relationship behind? she comes to the conclusion that, even if she rolls the stone away and gets resurrected/redeemed, she cannot avoid the fallout. she is okay with the thought of having to wait, as long as both lovers vow to be together forever, just as she once did with someone else in false god. ‘I choose you and me religiously’ finishes the bridge of the song in a direct callback to cornelia street.

the next mention of religion has murkier imagery. she claims that she does not need the Lord’s help to save this man. she sees the halo that he has, and she can fix him herself. now that she feels free of her prior cage, she isn’t looking for divine intervention anymore. she wants control. she is their route to salvation.

when the relationship falls apart, she retreats back into the position of a believer rather than a divine figure. she compares him to a Holy Ghost who promised to save her and take her to heaven. instead, she is in hell in every sense of the word: she’s down bad and feels guilty for digging up the grave. he was a jehovah’s witness who promised that she could break free of the cage imposed by love without changing her religion altogether; she would’ve just had to switch denominations. she could still have a marriage and kids! she could still have a blue tortured poet! the man was different, but not the dreams they had together. the story of the first part of the album ends here. her faith has been broken, and she has only found any semblance of sanity by refusing to mention these belief systems altogether.

side b/the anthology blends the christian imagery of side a with goddesses, sorcerers, and prophecies. she bargains with these powers to let her have the future she wants (the prophecy). she doesn’t sound like someone believing in salvation. if anything, she feels cursed. she decides that the concept of divinely ordained timing will never work in certain relationships (‘the goddess of timing once found us beguiling / she said she was trying / peter, was she lying?’). this disdain extends onto her perception of other people’s faith (‘bet they never spared a prayer for my soul’). she does position herself as a prophet in cassandra, but even then, she admits that the role has hurt her. perhaps the pain in thank you aimee was meant to be, or perhaps she was just strong enough to build a legacy in spite of it, boulder by boulder. is she a martyr? does she want to be? or did she save herself?

the only real love song on this half of the album makes no mention of fate or any divine forces. it wasn’t meant to be. it’s not a supernatural invisible string or lightning in a bottle. she is just in love.

the album ends with the manuscript, which revisits an old story of a defining, formative heartbreak. as she sings ‘at last, she knew what the agony had been for’ while describing the legacy of her writing, she seems to revert to thinking about the purpose of trauma. the only exception is that, in this case, she is the one who found meaning in her pain by turning it into a manuscript. writing is her belief system now, and she proselytizes by telling her stories and thus giving up the manuscript.

ultimately, her belief in destiny has chewed her up and spat her out. she so desperately clung to her existing belief systems that she was fooled by a conman, which left her feeling cursed. religion is supposed to be with someone even in their darkest moments, but the album explains that taylor often felt abandoned. the only constant in her life was, well, herself. she’ll be okay, but her pen will be her saving grace.

[geonbaeeee]

✨barefoot in the kitchen

sacred new beginnings

that became my religion ❣️

[lipslikethegardensofbabylon]

thinking about the way that Taylor sings about love as a religion… baby for you I would fall from grace… I thought heaven can’t help me now… I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones… this is a state of grace… sacred prayer, I was there… magic, madness, heaven, sin… even if it’s a false god, we’d still worship this love… no rules in breakable heaven… sacred new beginnings that became my religion… I know heaven’s a thing… you’re a crisis of my faith…

[pfirsichspritzer]

Barefoot in the kitchen Sacred new beginnings That became my religion, listen...

Cornelia Street - Taylor Swift

I had so much fun with all the little details in this. Especially the teapots took me forever.

[teeteepeedee]

anyone want to discuss “all i used to do was pray/would've, could've, should've/if you'd never looked my way/i would've stayed on my knees” and “you’re a crisis of my faith” versus “sacred new beginnings that became my religion” or are we trying to not cry today

[heystephen]

people these days know nothing about barefoot in the kitchen, sacred new beginnings that became my religion, listen

[crunchycrystals]

you ever think about how you called showed your hand i turned around before i hit the tunnel sat on the roof you and i?

[nownothingcantouchyou]

“you can hear it in the silence” and “could you just try to listen?” and “i’d give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other” and “you didn’t even hear me out” and “sacred new beginnings that became my religion, listen” and and and

[stoplickingmyneck]

barefoot in the kitchen, sacred new beginnings that became my religion🤭