Sauron and Istari

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Sarumian

I thought, Saruman suffered a loss similar to Melkor in the War of Wrath - he spent himself on "dark arts", created a big army invested his will into it and lost it - thus he has lost his powers. As Valar's representative, Gandalf only fixed this, preventing Saruman from regaining his powers even slowly.

I think what Gandalf did was strip Saruman of all authority to act as a representative of the Valar in Middle-earth: hence the symbolic breaking of Saruman's "badge", his staff, and the head of the staff falling at Gandalf's feet making him the new "head" of the Istari. That had the effect of greatly limiting Saruman's power to affect his environment. Gandalf said his one remaining "tooth" was his voice, and that might have been less a part of his "powers", and more akin to an innate gift with which he had been created.