@Zinnia #141834
“Search within the inside of the Earth. In rectifying/controlling it, you will discover the Secret Stone (=Philosopher’s Stone).”
To be honest, a backronym like this definitively is the kind of thing alchemists would do. Although it seems a bit odd they would not have used the full Vitriolum rather than the shortened form in the folk languages.
PS:
As it turns out, it is indeed misquoted version of an actual sentence from Renaissance Alchemy, that is indeed based on Vitrolum - and which has a more significant difference:
“Visita interiora terrae, rectificando invenies occultum lapidem, veram medicinam.”
“Search that which lies within the earth. By purifying it, you will find the Philosopher’s Stone, the True Cure.”
Nothing to do with Hollow Earth.
I also note that both the OP as well as Google simply skip “rectificando” despite its importance. I guess translating an ablativus absolutus gerund is just too hard, so why bother?
PPS:
On an unrelated note:
Originally this Myth came from Ancient Chinese Five Elemental Circulations of the Qi, the Kundalini Kriyas and then from Ancient Rome, Alchemical VITRIOL.
Actually, the Chinese Wuxing only superficially resembles the Western Elements only superficially, being more about transitions than substance. A more accurate translation would be “five phases” or “five agents”. It is also younger, establishing itself in the second Century BC while the Classical Elements are pre-Socratic - interestingly, the Indian theory of elements (mahābhūtas/tattvas), which is also used in Japan because of it is of high importance in Buddhism - has considerable similarities especially in the fundamentals (though with divergences) to the Western one, sharing the same including Aether/Space as the special fifth essence, and is also documented since a similiar time, so perhaps they have their sources in a common Indo-European belief.