How Extensive were Gandalf's powers?

[galpsi]

<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shade of Carn Dûm
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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/redeye.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: How Extensive were Gandalf's powers?

I have sometimes thought the colors of the wizards were to be understood according to very traditional occidental color-symbolism. White is paradigmatically pure. The Istari were Maia made to come to ME like men, to share their struggles, somewhat like Christ had to partake of the humbling experience of creation to save the created. Gandalf the Grey was besmirched, mortal, man-like, but when he was reborn he was white, unstained, purified. The discussion where Saruman repudiated his symbolically-pure whiteness in favor of the scientifically-subtle conception of white, understood as encompassing all colors, carries a certain resonance if this is so. For those with a metaphysical bent, like JRRT and like Gandalf, sophisticated optical theories offer no very good replacement for purity. The young hobbits note that the new Gandalf is freer than the old one. I think that that is a symptom of his liberation from the artificial constraints of his (sub)mission.
btw, a particularly fabulous example of this kind of color-symbolism in Christian art is Matthias Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece. Check it out!

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