VMS Help DTM, CREATE, VARIABLE, Command Qualifiers, /SYMBOL  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

   Defines the variable to be a OpenVMS symbol. When you specify a
   variable as a symbol with the /SYMBOL qualifier, you must further
   define it as either a numeric value (with the /NUMERIC qualifier)
   or a text string (with the /STRING qualifier). You cannot specify
   both /LOGICAL and /SYMBOL with the same CREATE VARIABLE command.
   The default is /SYMBOL.