Four Elements

The Four Elements (四大属性) are believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. In various cultures, religions, and belief systems in the world, the four elements are inexplicably connected to various things, which represent the balance in the world.

In the Toaru Majutsu no Index universe, the elements and their properties are closely connected with Idol Theory, not because it is a requirement in magic, but because of the many legends, myths, and symbolisms that are intertwined with them.

The Classical Elements
There are four classical elements in Western cultures, and if counting the 5th element, quintessence or ether, it matches the 5 elements of Eastern cultures. As such, to Tsuchimikado Motoharu, the Kabbalah, which uses the Western elements, are similar to Onmyoudou, both using the pentagram, one of the fundamental ingredients of a magic circle, which designates the positions of the elements. It can be assumed that the similitarities in the elements in East and West magical disciplines referred to the Japanese Elements.

In Modern Western Magic
Modern Western magic uses, the five elements: Air (or Wind), Fire, Water, Earth, and Ether. Each have their own Symbolic Weapon (象徴武器(シンボリックウェポン)); Dagger, Stick, Cup, Disc, and a Lotus Wand which are referred to as the elemental weapons, respectively. Ether has a special characteristic, and that it can change into any of the four remaining elements. It is carried on with the Lotus Wand using Idol Theory, wherein the staff can be made to represent the other elemental weapons.

In fields such as Alchemy, each of the elements has a spirit known as an associated with it.

Each of the five digits on the hand is associated with an element; starting with the thumb, they are associated with ether, water, fire, earth and wind respectively.

Directions, colors, and guardians
Accompanying the elements are colors, positions and guardians. These are used in setting up a magic circle, and with accordance with Idol Theory, is used to borrow the powers, abilities, or attributes that are are needed by the spellcaster, these are unique for each one.

The four elements in Western traditions also have a pair of assigned to them; either Hot (温) or Cold (寒), and either Dry (乾) or Wet (湿).

Attribution and Application
These attributes and its capabilities are explained by Idol Theory, in which a spellcaster would be able to draw power using the symbolic relationship between the elements and its properties. For example: Acqua of the Back has his name referring to his element and the position it has with accordance with Western magic tradition. Along with all members of God's Right Seat, he draws power of the corresponding angel, Archangel Gabriel, this allows him to cast water spells. With color, other than changing the color of clothes, some magicians go a step further, dying their hair, such as Stiyl Magnus, wielding the power of fire, and Aureolus Izzard, dying his hair green, wielding the power of earth.

In making magic circles, colors and their corresponding positions is to add decorations that signify its usage, like the All-Around Reality Circle of Tsuchimikado Motoharu using a simple circle that uses the four colors of Eastern Magic to collect information from every single direction.

Tattva
Tattva (タットワ)(Sanskrit for 'principle' or 'truth') is a variation of the concept of the elements, found in Hindu and a number of Indian philosophical schools, which was further developed by the Golden Dawn. There are several systems of varying numbers, but the one adapted by the Golden Dawn has five basic tattvas, roughly equivalent to the five classical elements found in the West. In the original traditions, these five tattvas form part of a global energy cycle and are associated with a sequence of tides, starting with Akasha at dawn and ending with Prithivi. Power connected to the tattva flows from the sun and alters in elements by rotating around the Earth.

The Golden Dawn developed a technique known as a tattva vision, which uses tattva cards created from a combination of the symbols as a tool for aiding and accomplishing astral projection and spiritual development. The Tattva combinations provide a technique for seeing and learning various things, with some capable of identifying and highlighting traces of residual information in a person's surroundings. Although this form of meditation is normally done using cards, the symbols can be used without them. While it is a simple method, one must not take it lightly or lose sight of their objective when using it. One warning given by Mathers himself, is that pressing a card to one's forehead in a misguided attempt to strength the image in the head will trigger a malfunction in the mind - this can be exploited by applying it to someone else to force them into a temporary state of confusion or hallucination.

Another usage of Tattva in Golden-style magic is the use of their color arrangement to produce plain colored cards which act as Symbolic Weapons to indirectly interfere with the five elements. The Dawn that Wipes Away Darkness uses a rearrangement with four colors to manipulate elements through emphasizing or adding vagueness through the colored cards (e.g. using the complimentary color green to strengthen fire associated with the color red, or using a red card to make the outline vague and weaken the flames), though the method has become obsolete with modern magical techniques to manipulate pure elements directly. The symbol of the black egg can be used for an invisibility spell, referenced in Israel Regardie's grimoire.

Recent History
Some time before the beginning of the series, a great distortion of the great laws distorted the elements slightly, and has switched the positions of the angels and their attributes. Despite this, the elements can be still be wielded and called upon with their colors, however, because of this distortion, it allowed a ridiculous spell such as Angel Fall to be cast.

Angel Fall Arc
With the distortion of the laws of the world, Kamijou Touya accidentally casted Angel Fall, in accordance with Feng shui, arranging the charms, folkcraft, and souvenirs he collected, making his home a ritual location for his spell.

Daihasei Festival Arc
Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Stiyl Magnus explain to Kamijou Touma on how to magicians draw power from magic circles and on how Oriana Thomson's Shorthand spells are similar to Grimoires. Motoharu later sets up a spell in accordance with the teachings of Onmyoudou, that allowed them to track out Oriana's location.

World War III Arc
During World War III, Fiamma of the Right revealed that the four elements had become distorted and later reset them through the Star of Bethlehem as part of Project Bethlehem. He also made use of the fact that each of the elements (including fire, which he was aligned to) contain traces of the other three, in conjunction with access to the knowledge of the 103,000 grimoire Index Librorum Prohibitorum granted by the John's Pen Remote Control, in order to use normal magic despite being of God's Right Seat and draw out additional power.

Element Arc
Magic-based cores corresponding to the four elements were used as components for the reduced life forms known as Elements, which Kihara Yuiitsu unleashed on Academy City in order to draw out the Kamisato Faction.

Aleister Crowley Arc
In the recreation of Aleister Crowley's past, shown to Kamijou Touma in the Windowless Building, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers made use of the four elemental Symbolic Weapons.

Coronzon Arc
During the emergence of the reproduced Golden Dawn in the midst of the Crowley's Hazard invasion of the United Kingdom, the reproduced Mathers made effective use of elemental attacks using the four Symbolic Weapons, just as the original Mathers had.

During the events surrounding the Ceremony of Mo Athair, Coronzon made use of pure elemental attacks via the Enochian Secret Calls. In a clash with Accelerator, she referred to the associations between the elements and the fingers (the middle-finger being fire), and while heading for the Queen Britannia's temple (via the correct process), she also referred to the Salamander and Undine representing fire and water, as well as the association between the elements and types of animal meat (four-legged animals for fire, fish for water, birds for wind, and bugs or snakes for earth). While preparing for the ceremony, the four great elements (and the invisible ether as the fifth) were among the influences she banished from temple. Later, during a clash between Aleister Crowley and Niang-Niang, the latter made it so that the collateral damage indicated the correct elemental symbols for accessing the temple.