Toaru Theory

Time for a wild Toaru theory. This may need some work, but I'm just gonna jot down the basic ideas to get the ball rolling since I am a bit busy today and wanna get this out. I'm going to attempt to offer an explanation for what the hell espers are, and their connection to angels.

THIS CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR ALL OF TOARU UP TO THIS POINT. This includes all of Index New Testament, up to the Jailbbreaker arc of Railgun, and Railgun SS3.

So, there seems to be multiple hints suggesting that Esper abilities are a form of magic, specifically thelemic magic as created by Crowley. I don't have time to list all those hints right now, but it keeps coming up. We know that Crowley abandoned magic to pursue science, but we also know that he's still a practicing magician. This makes perfect sense if we assume that his pursuit of magic is just a continuation of his life's work in Thelema. According to Crowley, "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will". He views magic as a science, and this is important.

One of Crowley's teachings was about the concept of the 'Holy Guardian Angel', an entity which is something like the astral counterpart of a human. Something like their soul or atman or daimon, something which exists before and after a person's death but is connected to him. However, Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel is notably a distinct and separate entity from a person. Every person has a Holy Guardian Angel connected to them, but it is not the same thing as them. This is a complex subject and I don't want to get into too much detail, but one way I like to think of them is something between a parent/child relationship and a video game avatar / player relationship. Like, we originate from our Holy Guardian Angel, but we are not the same as them. Maybe incarnation is another word that could describe it.

Anyway, we already know one such Holy Guardian Angel in Toaru: Aiwass, Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel. While Crowley was able to use a very complicated plan to summon and tether Aiwass to the physical plane, we have yet to meet any other holy guardian angels in the series. But we MIGHT have seen glimpses of them.

So back to espers. The idea is that esper abilities are a form of magic that doesn't rely on conventions of idol theory or invoking any mythology, but rather are powers that are invoked from within instead of from somewhere else, drawing unique power from your 'personal reality', able to be explained through quantum mechanics. But perhaps, one way to explain how this is in fact magic is through the idea of Holy Guardian Angels. Perhaps, every esper in academy city has their own Holy Guardian Angel, and that angel is the source of their esper power. For example, an esper with pyrokinesis would have the Holy Guardian Angel that's a fire spirit. Maybe your Esper Level is actually a determination of the power of your Holy Guardian Angel. Level 1s and 0s would have very minor spirits as their HGA, while Level 5s would have Gods. Misaka's HGA could be someone like Zeus for example. Crowley loved experimenting with drugs to activate his spiritual senses, so maybe that's the basis of the Esper Curriculum Program, to induce a change in these kids' brains to help them form a connection with their HGA and invoke their power.

This might also offer an explanation for the as of yet unexplained phenomenon of certain espers attaining divine appearances when their power is at its peak. Accelerator's black and white Wings, Misaka gaining a halo when she is turning level 6, Sakibasu Yuri gaining wings and a halo when invoking the power of Ainsel, and Uiharu's awakening where she gained horns, glowed with light, and vines grew from her body. The latter in particular really makes me think of a Japanese kami of some kind.

Perhaps, these forms are a way of showing that the Esper's connection with their Holy Guardian Angel is stronger than ever, and they are able to harness their full powers. Maybe Level 6 is about an Esper reaching that state of complete union with their HGA.

Food for thought!