Mind and word

Athanasius quotes Dionysius regarding the perichoretic relation of word and intelligence:

“For word is an efflux of intelligence, and, to borrow language applicable to men, theintelligence that issues by the tongue is derived from the heart through the mouth, coming out different from the word in the heart. For the latter remains, after sending forth the other, as it was. But the other is sent forth and flies forth, and is borne in every direction. And so each is in the other, and each distinct from the other: and they are one and at the same time two. Likewise the Father and the Son were said to be one, and the One in the other.”

And again,

“For as our intelligence utters the word from itself, as the prophet says, My heart uttered a good word (Psalm 45:1), and, while either is distinct from the other, occupying a place of its own distinct from the other, the one dwelling and stirring in the heart, the other upon the tongue—yet they are not separated, not for a moment lost to one another, nor is the intelligence without utterance ( alogos ), nor the word without intelligence, but the intelligence creates the Word also being manifested in it, and the Word shows forth the intelligence having originated in it, and the intelligence is as it were an internal word, and the word an issuingintelligence; the intelligence passing over into the word, while the word circulates the intelligence among the hearers: and so theintelligence through the word gains a lodgment in the souls of the hearers, entering in along with the word; and the intelligenceis as it were the father of the word, existing in itself, while the word is as it were the son of the intelligence, having its origin, not of course before the latter, nor yet concurrently with it from some external source, but by springing out of it—so the mighty Father and universal Intelligence has the Son before all things as His Word, Interpreter and Messenger.”