It does seem that you have added in a fair amount of unwarranted personal opinion to this word. The word has no connection with what you have suggested which you will be able to see from the following lexical entries:
(BibleWorks 9) Friberg Lexicon:
24998 στοιχεῖον, ου, τό strictly small upright post; hence first beginning, element or principle; only plural in the NT; (1) generally, the rudimentary elements of anything, what belongs to a basic series in any field of knowledge; in grammar, the ABCs; in speech, basic sounds; in physics, the four basic elements (earth, air, fire, water); in geometry, the axioms; in philosophy, the givens; (2) as used in the NT; (a) as a religious technical term elementary doctrines, fundamental teachings, basic principles (HE 5.12; perhaps CO 2.8, 20 and GA 4.3, 9); (b) in a negative sense, humanistic teachings common to Jewish and pagan religions, involving binding traditions, taboos, prohibitions, ordinances, ceremonies, etc., teachings involving either supernatural elemental or animating spirits (probably CO 2.8, 20), or basic material elements (probably GA 4.3, 9) elements, elemental things; (c) in relation to the natural world (basic) elements, natural substances (2P 3.10, 12)
Thayers Greek Lexicon
4914 stoicei/on
stoicei/on, stoiceiou, to, (from stoi/coj a row, rank, series; hence, properly, that which belongs to any stoi/coj, that of which a stoi/coj is composed; hence), "any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise; an element, first principle". The word denotes specifically:
1. the letters of the alphabet as the elements of speech, not however the written characters (which are called gra,mmata), but the spoken sounds: stoicei/on fwnh/j fwnh, avsu,nqetoj, Plato definition, p. 414 e.; to, rvw to, stoicei/on, id. Crat., p. 426 d.; stoicei/on evsti fwnh, avdiairetoj, ouv pa/sa de,, avllV evx h-j pefuke suneth, gi,gnesqai fwnh,, Aristotle, poet. 20, p. 1456{b}, 22.
2. the elements from which all things have come, the material causes of the universe (evsti de, stoicei/on, evx ou- prw,tou gi,netai ta, gino,mena kai, eivj o` e;scaton avnalu,etai ... to, pu/r, to, u[dwr, o` avh,r, h` gh/, Diogenes Laërtius Zeno 137); so very often from Plato down, as in Tim., p. 48 b.; in the Scriptures: Sap. 7:17; 19:17; 2 Pet. 3:10,12.
3. the heavenly bodies, either as parts of the heavens, or (as others think) because in them the elements of man's life and destiny were supposed to reside; so in the earlier ecclesiastical writings: Ep. ad Diogn. 7, 2; Justin Martyr, dialog contra Trypho, 23; ta, Ouvrani,a stoicei/a, id. Apology 2, 5; stoicei/a Qeou/, created by God, Theoph. Ant. ad Autol. 1, 4; cf. Hilgenfeld, Galaterbrief, pp. 66-77. Hence, some interpreters infelicitously understand Paul's phrase ta, stoicei/a tou/ ko,smou, Gal. 4:3,9; Col. 2:8,20 , of the heavenly bodies, because times and seasons, and so sacred seasons, were regulated by the course of the sun and moon; yet in unfolding the meaning of the passage on the basis of this sense they differ widely.
4. the elements, rudiments, primary and fundamental principles (cf. our `alphabet' or `a b c') of any art, science, or discipline; e. g. of mathematics, as in the title of Euclid's well-known work; stoicei/a prw/ta kai, me,gista crh,sthj politei,aj, Isocrates, p. 18 a.; th/j avreth/j, Plutarch, de puer. educ. 16, 2; many examples are given in Passow, under the word, 4, ii., p. 1550b; (cf. Liddell and Scott, under the word, II. 3 and 4). In the N. T. we have ta, stoicei/a th/j avrch/j tw/n logi,wn tou/ Qeou/ (see avrch,, 1 b., p. 76{b} bottom), Heb. 5:12, such as are taught to nh,pioi, Heb. 5:13; ta, stoicei/a tou/ ko,smou, the rudiments with which mankind like nh,pioi were indoctrinated before the time of Christ, i. e. the elements of religions training, or the ceremonial precepts common alike to the worship of Jews and of Gentiles, Gal. 4:3,9, (and since these requirements on account of the difficulty of observing them are to be regarded as a yoke -- cf. Acts 15:10; Gal. 5:1 -- those who rely upon them are said to be dedoulwme,noi u`po, ta, stoicei/a); specifically, the ceremonial requirements especially of Jewish tradition, minutely set forth by theosophists and false teachers, and fortified by specious argument, Col. 2:8,20. The phrase ta, stoicei/a tou/ ko,smou is fully discussed by Schneckenburger in the Theolog. Jahrbücher for 1848, Part iv., p. 445ff; Neander in the Deutsche Zeitschrift f. Christl. Wissensehaft for 1850, p. 205ff; Kienlen in Reuss u. Cunitz's Beiträge zu d. theolog. Wissenschaften, vol. ii., p. 133ff; E. Schaubach, Comment. qua exponitur quid stoicei/a tou/ ko,smou in N. T. sibi velint. (Meining. 1862).*