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A little late in the discussion, but new to the board... (and call me Ibrin or Ibri, it's easier)
I don't have my books on hand to go looking for the reference at the moment, but Tolkien did say that Alatar and Pallando, in their falling, may have been the source for persistent "black magic" cults that persist "even to this day" (whatever "this day" might be). I believe he also speculates somewhere that Sauron might have gotten to them before they completed their task of trying to bolster the resistance against him in the East.
My feeling about Saruman's spirit is that he may have wound up in a sort of Limbo -- not the doom of the Void, nor the reward of the Timeless Halls, or even Aman. For him, he may be caught in a personal Purgatory (all rather in keeping with Tolkien's Catholic beliefs) -- not unlike the Wandering Spirits of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." He did not do what he was supposed to do in that life, and now is condemned to wander among those he could have helped, a witness to all he is now powerless to share or aid. Just my thoughts, of course.
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