The Two Babylons root "*aus-", meaning "dawn," potentially by way of . "Ishtar" is a Semitic name of uncertain etymology, possibly taken from the same root as Assyria, or from a semitic word meaning "to irrigate." Hislop ultimately claimed to trace Catholic doctrines back to the worship of Nimrod, asserting that the Roman Catholic Church represented Whore of Babylon of the Book of Revelation and that "the Pope himself is truly and properly the lineal representative of Belshazzar". He claimed that the Christogram IHS, the first three Greek letters in the name of Jesus, represented Latin characters standing for Isis, Horus and Seb.
The Root chorus "feeds back into itself over and over again, turning from a hook into a mantra into a gospel affirmation". In the promotional EPK for "Voodoo", D'Angelo discussed the therapeutic nature of recording "The Root", stating "It was kinda therapeutic for me to do this song. It kinda help me get over, because I'm so pathetic in the song. You know what I mean? That's what 'The Root' is. She got it on me. And I'm just fucked up. It was good for me to get over that. It was hard for me sometimes to do that song. To record