“I think it's the contemporary aversion to granting the intellect any credence, as though doing so might sully the spirit, as if the two were in competition.”
Wendy, yes, hardly in competition – in fact, I see “intellect” and “spirit” as synonyms.
In the standard Western metaphysic, we have the polarity of “mind” and “matter”, and all that is abstract, rational, spiritual, belongs on the “mind’ side, and all that is gross, material, earthy, etc., is on the “matter” side. So "spirit" and "intellect" are a continuum.
Why I like James Hillman’s version of Neoplatonism, is that it reinstates the “metaxy”, the middle realm between abstract “mind” and concrete “matter”, by positing psyche, or “soul” as the middle realm, joining the other two poles.
So we have: Body (matter), Soul psyche, and Mind (Spirit).
The middle realm, the realm of the psyche, is the realm of imagination, as distinct from rational, logical thought. And psyche is where poetry is born. Well, in the interaction between Spirit and Psyche, and Matter, I would say. But the images of poetry originate in the psychic realm.
However, in modern times, this middle term has vanished from our cultural consciousness – we moderns and postmoderns have, in short, lost our souls – our emotional intelligence. No wonder poetry is almost dead in the wider culture.
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