The Tree of Life, or Sephirot, is the Kabbalistic structure from which the Herd derives The Cosmic Tree. In Kabbalah, each of its ten nodes is an emanation from a divine source — a metaphysical principle that shapes the pure light of God before it reaches the material world. The mystic circulates energy among the nodes, balancing each with the others.
The Herd adopts the structure but reorders its emphasis around what it considers the essential human virtues and passions, placing The Calf at the crown and The Eight Angels at the gates. The scribes note that the borrowing is deliberate and hold it to be evidence rather than appropriation: the true god, they teach, leaves the same shape in every tradition. [transmission needed]