From Reader Mark. TY Mark!!

Before the Romans drained the area, Vatica was a swamp land and filled with large snakes.

In the introduction to the book "The Sistine Secrets," it explains that the word "vatika" comes from the pre-Roman Etruscan word for
1) a hallucinogenic plant,
2) a bitter grape that made bad Etruscan wine and
3) the Etruscan goddess who guarded the necropolis on vatican hill. The word vatika subsequently became latin for "prophecy" (referring to female oracles called "Vaticinia") that were connected to these three things. The area which is now St. Peters thus became known as the "Ager Vaticanus" or Vatican Hill. Today, the Italian verb "to prophesize" is "vaticanare", deriving from the Latin.

The deeper origin of the word vatika relates to the "tika" or "tikal" dot or jewelry Hindu women (only) place on their forehead to indicate the third eye. The word "tika" then corresponds to the pineal gland (that looks like a pine cone) which is actually an embedded eye with retina in the center of the brain. In more primitive animals the pineal gland has a cornea and locates closer to the top of the skull (corresponding to the Hindu crown chakra) and is thought to help regulate biological activities. In addition to melatonin, the pineal gland is thought to produce a molecule known as DMT (DiMethylTryptamine) which is the most powerful hallucinogen known to exist and appears to be related to dreaming and near-death experiences (see Rick Strassman's book "DMT: The Spirit Molecule"). So, vatika as an entheogenic plant [magic mushrooms or possibly acacia fruit - see below] would then be concerned with the third eye and psychedelic experiences. The swastika symbol found in the Hindu Vedas, Greece and around the world could then refer to the swirling tika, or the vortex ("spirit") said to emanate into or out of the crown chakra in Hindu beliefs. Gives a whole new spin to the term "Holy See" for the Vatican, does it not?

Now it happens that Hindu monasteries are also called vatika. This raises the question could the pre-Roman Etruscans have based their religion on Hinduism and learned how to stimulate the third eye through entheogenic plants? Given that the Vatican was once a vatika for Vaticinia women (probably from India) who drank from a vat of vatika wine to hallucinate through their swas-tika, most religions may well have been derived from ancient Indian shamanism that incorporated entheogenic herbs. The book "Persephone's Quest" seems to support this idea.