| By Anthony S Burdge As a student
of all things spiritual I found myself on the path of converting
to Judaism some three and a half years back. I had been shown
and had the door opened to Jewish mysticism known as the Kabbalah.
For some time before this I had always been interested in magick
and the uses of the tools of the divine and otherworldly. As a
system bound by Jewish Law Kabbalah utilizes names of G-d and
meditations on the G-d head, surrounded by the ways of the prophets,
this is what I found best for my own spiritual journey. Though
Kabbalah does not utilize the ideals of a magical system, characters
that utilize supernatural abilities always fascinated me. The group known as "The Istari" within
Middle Earth is what I looked closely at especially Gandalf.
As we know Gandalf stood for what was right and true and walked
a tight and narrow path. He was know to the elves as the "Grey
Pilgrim" or Mithrandir who gathered no wealth nor followers,
always wandering in search of knowledge and helping those in
need, your true humble servant of the One. We can get into a
whole treatise as to his origins but only basic knowledge of
why I have cleaved to this character is necessary. He leads
a life that I look up to and try to lead in my own, one with
his deity and in unquestionable service to that deity and his
people.
This leads me to the main theme of this
article the naming of the first and only New York Tolkien Society
Smial. If you are a fan of these types of characters, those
possessing supernatural abilities, we can now look at the meaning
of wizard, which they are at times called, and of the Istari.
According to The Unfinished Tales page 405(paperback): "Wizard
is a translation of Quenya istar (Sindarin ithron): one of the
members of an 'order' (as they called it), claiming to possess,
and exhibiting, eminent knowledge of the history and nature
of the World. The translation (though suitable in its relation
to 'wise' and other ancient Words of knowing, similar to that
of istar in Quenya) is not perhaps Happy, since Heren Istarion
or 'Order of Wizards' was quite distinct From the 'wizards'
and 'magicians' of later legend; they belonged Solely to the
Third Age and then departed, none save maybe Elrond, Cirdan,
and Galadriel discovered of what kind they were or whence they
Came."
From this we can conclude the translation
of Heren Istarion and from where then the term is derived. For
my interest in spiritual arts and fascination with these beings
lead me to naming the Smial in dedication to them. We concluded
it a fitting title.
Now every "Order of Wizards" needs a
sort of tome or book to learn from besides a teacher. For the
longest time we sought for names for Heren Istarions? bulletin
and remembered the Quenya word for book "Parma" also the name
of one of its letters. But that could not be all, we needed
something more than "Parma" so I scoured The Languages of Tolkien's
Middle Earth by Ruth S. Noel. The dictionary had the perfect
word, "Nólë" which means 'long study', 'lore' or 'knowledge'
hence we had Book of Lore, or Book of long study or Book of
Knowledge. I prefer the first definition Parma Nólë, Book of
Lore, it sounds more akin to what a "wizard" may call it.
Now we have the origins of the names
of our smial Heren Istarion and our bulletin Parma Nólë. These
names are dedicated to those in search of education of themselves
and the world. There are those who may read this and may not
believe in supernatural abilities or anything beyond this world
as I do. Hopefully though you can hold true to the basic concepts
of them, the journey of the Self and the dedication to an educated,
honest and giving life we all should lead. 
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