Greetings!
Aaah, the Newage approach to spiritism. Astarte is female, or represents an energy current that is feminine in nature. Astaroth, though, is male or more closer to the mark, an it. He/it is a derivation of the original Astarte but is definately not the same animal. Consider aspects of dieties. Consider centuries of belief (no matter how true or not) but Astaroth is now a separate aspect of Astarte. Astaroth is not worshipped as a fertility diety. Astarte is.
Belial has never, ever been an elemental. An elemental is a semi-sentient representative of the basic building blocks of nature. Belial has more than one element within his makeup as do you and most other complex beings. Elementals are very, very basic. The idea that Belial as ruler of the element Earth and Earth elementals stems from the Christian referencing of Belial as being the 'Devil' and thus, the Father of Lies, who is also known as the Master/Ruler of the Earth. Even if you take this at face value, it still doesn't make this spirit an elemental...merely in command of such. The old Xtians also looked upon old fertility dieties/spirits as 'dirty' or of 'the Earth'. Lumping all such spirits together with true elementals. Tragic. A good cross section is the comparing of the Egyptian neteru and their historic/actual timelines. Osiris was originally a flood/fertility god not Lord of the Dead (which was Anubis's reign) but, over years and political machination he became the god of the Dead and Anubis became the son of Isis and Set. Gee....Cheney now declares that he is no longer part of the Executive branch of US government! History in the Making!
You are entitled to your happy views and more power to you. I've been practicing elemental and Solomonic magic for decades now and, from my own (subjective) experiences, have found that true elementals do not give familiars nor speak of the arts and sciences of man but , rather, are far more concerned with their own element...exclusively. Those elementals that are brought into contact with Man are corrupted eventually and usually end tragically...something to think upon, surely! We are looked upon as 'devils' to those elementals who are disrupted into service.
Belial has more in common with Gabriel than with being an elemental. It would be like me saying that Gabriel was a water elemental, Uriel an earth eleemental, Raphael being an air elemental or Michael being a fire elemental. Spiritual beings may have stronger or weaker affinities to any one, two or more elements but that doesn't mean that they are elementals! You, supposedly, have or are made up of 5 different elements....just what does that mean? Perhaps the clue is in the fallacious concept that spirit is an actual element. No, you'll find that Belial is made up of a number of elements and is imbued with spirit. Spiritual beings that are made up of more than one/two elements are called something else (Devas, angels, demons, daemons, spirits, etc. ad nauseum)
I hope that you will please try to contact the elemental kingdoms. Ask most magicians here who are versed in evocation what they have dealt with in regards to elementals. Paracelsus wrote an interesting book called the Archidoxes of Magic that will be of interest to you.
The name Belial is supposedly derived from the term 'worthless of God' and other rather unflattering remarks. But if you go about using the Newage defense...subjectively, the term Belial has been associated with some fairly horrendous behavior, which, in turn, by the multitudes that believe, makes Belial exactly what they say he is...
To me, he is a negative spirit that will tell you anything to further his own aims. You may (or not) believe what you will. It still doesn't make him associated wholly with the element earth. (IMG:
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