This page started with the realization that the words Shibboleth and Lethal had a common letter string, and when combined made a new, potent word. (A Google search disclosed that the word had been coined already. Someone credited someone usernamed Xel for it. Congratulations, Xel!) The word was twelve letters long; soon were found two other twelve-letter words to form a potent phrase.

So what does Shibbolethal Contrapuntal Dispositions mean? Well, shibboleth once meant a tell-tale in pronunciation that revealed where someone came from. (If curious, see the biblical Judges chapter 12, verses 4 through 6.) It has come to mean some distinguishing feature of a special group. Make that deadly, and you’ve got Shibbolethal.

Contrapuntal is the adjective form of counterpoint. In music, Counterpoint is the use of a second melody that enhances the first melody via its difference. This definition has broadened to include non-musical endeavors.

Dispositions is the plural of a word that can mean either Mood or Inclination or Deployment.

Now, with the phrase to conjure with, it was time to do some conjuring. Here is the work in early progress:

Most of these acrostics start with the end words, and with twelve, the main choices are strict rhyme, near rhyme, or no rhyme. Once the choice is made, the words are usually free-associated into discovery. Thus came jihad, wadi, morass, grasp, intaglio, adios, Nefertiti, appetit (which really ought to have been appétit), Kundalini, magneto (the machine, not the supervillain), Hunín (which ought to have been Junín, and which was changed), and vetoes. But it felt like the middle words should somehow relate, too.

Well, one thing led to another, and the resulting message has something to do with the terrible habit of governments and the people they are made up of imposing their opinions, sometimes in the forms of firebombings or assassination, on different nations or cultures or regimes. It is not a clear message; though three different rhyme/meter schemes were used, conforming to the triple acrostic disclarified the meaning. Still–the World is a lot like that: murky, obscure, providing frustrating clues.

A few words about the two caryatids used to illustrate a contrapuntal quality: the traditional caryatid found in Greek architecture is a support element, a quasi-pillar. Auguste Rodin gives us an idea of what would happen if an actual human being were enlisted to hold up tons of masonry. He thus brings to life that fine Greek concept, Pathos.