Hey Dancing Bear,
Not on the wrong track, but it's more complcated than that... The question you're asking is a complete study on its own, so there aren't really any soundbites that are going to be satisaying or accurate.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is also an acronym:
VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENFIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM which translates roughly as "Visit the interior parts of the earth; by rectification you shall find the hidden stone." So before you think about the interaction of sulphur, Salt and mercury you should think about what the alchemical tradition means by the Philosopher's Stone (and by extension the Great Work).
There is an alchemical substrata in the Thoth, but it's complicated and elaborate and a whole topic unto itself because Crowley had his own ideas into which Alchemy factored. Most importantly, there isn't an easy A+B+C=X forumla in any alchemical study. The entire tradition is written in elaborate codes, verbal and visual, that purposefully defy simple interpretation and explanation.
Crowley uses the Renaissance acronym because it is a magical directive as much as a spiritual one. Vitriol was understood both as a literal substance AND an idea. For your purposes, the best way might be to consider the symbolism at work in each card. Chunk it down to the identifiable elements and then trace them as they shift through the cards (the Orphic Egg is a fun one, actually). THEN start thinking about that acronym:
VISITA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENFIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM. I posted on this elsewhere, but for simplicity's sake I'm gonna quote it here...
Rectify...from medieval Latin
rectificare , literally “to make right,” from
rectus “right” (source of English rectangle and rectum).] Also right as in the opposite of left (
sinistre/which even then had the connotation of evil)... which reminds me of the Qliphoth as the shattered Sephiroth, so that ascending the Tree brings you closer to Limitless abundance/absence. Perspective again, right and left being directions that change in context. So too Morality/Immorality and Beauty/Horror.
Thence Crowley's wacky behavior. And the insistent retitling of this card: Art and Temperance are two very different things. With all due respect, I don't see this card as a New Agey urging towards "Balance" although that's mixed into the options available to the Artist. Harmony is a part of Art, but then disonnance is as well. IMO, I don't see Crowley psychologizing his behavior or looking for "Middle Path" wisdom. I'd say that Art (as a title and a concept) is more active and demanding of personal intent and responsibility. Temperance has an intemperate judgment built into it that is at odds with the new Aeon. Titling this Atu ART is such a bold, hopeful command to the rest of us. I hope he was right. People looking and leaping simultaneously, taking charge of creation.
Rectification and blending... so that it isn't just lightening your dark, it might also be darkening your light.
Solve et coagulo. The full palette is made available because this card may be indicating that Artistry behind every choice that we make. And the desire to distinguish between them is transformed as well. Doesn't Gaugin say: the ugly may be beautiful, but the pretty never? The real miracle is the internal transformation, the ability to see the omnipresence of Magick. Believing is seeing
And don't forget that that first word "Visit" (also form Latin by way of French) means to "go and see." This isn't a question of a literal Indiana Jones excursion into subterranean Lairs. It's about vision (and wit and solvents etc.). Literalism is going to be the death of all of us.
An interesting aside; VITRIOL is a wildly loaded acronym. According to my OED, the word comes to us from medieval Latin
vitriolum, from Latin
vitrum “glass.” Acid and glass and wit and fury and the Philosopher's Solution all conveyed in 7 letters. In fact, glass is actually a liquid... a liquid that moves so slowly that it is hard to the touch, but so inexorably that windows in old houses are thicker at the bottom. And glass is a strange thing to see, because in looking at it, we are actually looking at what is beyond it. Its fundamental nature is transparency, like the Tree of Life. We "visit" through it. It is a sight which contains nothing of itself: Ain. Ain Soph. Ain Soph Aur.
No idea if any of that made sense... but maybe something will resonate? Or else I need to be on medication.
Scion