Many of these symbols have magical significance. It seems highly unlikely given his study of the occult that Hubbard was unaware of the earlier use of these symbols. The Scientology cross which Hubbard claimed to have seen in an old Spanish church in Arizona 86)is markedly similar to the Rosicrucian cross 87)and also to Aleister Crowley's OTO cross. Hubbard had been a member of the Rosicrucians. He had also commented on Crowley's Tarot which carries the OTO cross on the back of every card. Hubbard cannot have been ignorant of these uses.
The Scientology cross could also be seen as a crossed out cross, with potentially Satanic implications. It seems strange that Hubbard who called Scientology a "better" activity than Christianity 88)called Christ an invention 89)and said that the "Creator of Heaven" would be found "with beetles under the rocks" 90), should have adopted the exclusive Christian word "church", the garb of Christian ministers and the use of the cross as a symbol. But Scientology is based upon deception and contradictions.
The Rosicrucians and the Freemasons share a ritual called the "grave of fire" 91). A senior Rosicrucian who had also studied Scientology told me that the initiate lies on a carpet within a pattern of lapping flames. He claimed that Scientology's Religious Technology Center - or RTC - symbol was very similar.92)
The RTC symbol contains the Dianetics triangle, which is a common magicical symbol, representing the door of the Cabala, the letter Daleth. Hubbard indeed assigned it to the Greek equivalent of Daleth, Delta. The triangle on its base is also the symbol of Set, the Egyptian god called by some "the destroyer of man", the male equivalent of Babalon. Indeed Crowley equates Set with Satan 93). The triangle is universally recognised as a sign of malign power. Alexandra David-Neel commented upon its use as such among the Tibetians. Her best-selling books of the 1930's contain many other possible comparisons with Hubbard's work.
The "S and double triangle" is a major symbol found throughout Scientology. The "S" supposedly represents "Scientology" and the two triangles Affinity-Reality-Communication and Knowledge-Responsibility-Control. There is another possible interpretation. The "S" seen on its own can easily be seen as a snake. To Crowley, indeed, the "S" represented the tempting serpent, Satan. Perhaps Hubbard's "thetan" is pronounced to match with a lisped "satan"? He was after all wry in his humour. The two triangles can be assembled differently to form the Star of David, called the Seal of Solomon by magicians 94). This symbol allegedly represents "tetragrammaton" the holy name of God which must never be spoken. Perhaps breaking it apart is simlar to hanging the Christian cross upside down.
Next we see the Sea Organization symbol. The five pointed star, or pentacle is the most commonly known symbol of magical power. It is held between two thirteen-leaved laurels. Armstrong told me in 1984 that judging by the papers in Hubbard's archive the creator of Scientology was more interested in numerology than any other aspect of magic.
Among the more seemingly fanciful claims of Hubbard's oldest son, L. Ron, junior, was that his father was the successor to the magicians who created Nazism. Nazism was certainly an authoritarian group, a protypical destructive cult. Recent revealations about leading Scientologist Thomas Marcellus' long-running direction of the Institute for Historical Review can only add to speculation 95). Dusty Sklar has said that had she known about Hubbard she would have used him in the last chaper of The Nazis and the Occult rather than Sun Myung Moon 96). L. Ron, junior, was sure that the teachings of the Germanen Orden and the Thule Society had passed directly to his father by courier. In this light, the white circle on a red square of Scientology's International Management Organization 97)can be readily compared to the Nazi flag. The four lightning flashes or "sig runes" are also common to Nazism. No explanation is given for these sig runes by Scientology. They also appear on the RTC symbol. At the time that both of these symbols were introduced, Hubbard also created the International Finance Police, headed by the International Finance Dictator. An unusual choice of words.
Hitler too had been aware of the power of occult symbols and rituals. Speaking of Freemasons, he said "All the supposed abominations, the skeletons and death's head, the coffins and the mysteries, are mere bogeys for children. But there is one dangerous element and that is the element I have copied from them. They form a sort of priestly nobility. They have developed and esoteric doctrine more merely formulated, but imparted through the symbols and mysteries in degrees of initiation. The hierarchical organization and the initiation through symbolic rites, that is to say, without bothering the brain by working on the imagination through magic and the symbols of a cult, all this has a dangerous element, and the element I have taken over. Don't you see that our party must be of this character...? An Order, the hierarchial Order of a secular priesthood." 98)
86) What is Scientology?" Church of Scientology of California, first edition, 1978, p. 301
87) H. Spencer Lewis, Rosicrucian Manual, AMORC , San Jose, 1982.
88) Modern Management Technology Defined, definition of Church of American Science
89) HCO Policy Letter, Former practices, 1968
90) HCO Policy Letter, Heaven, 1963
91) cf Hubbard's use of "wall of fire" to describe OT III & OT V. These may also be compared to gnostic ideas.
92) The RTC symbol is frequently used, e.g., What is Scientology, 2nd edition, 1992, p. 92
93) Magick Without Tears, p. 259
94) Cavendish, p. 243
95) Paul Bracchi, The Cult and a Right-Winger, Evening Argus, Brighton, England, 4 April 1995.
96) Letter to the author. Sklar's book was published by Crowell, NY, 1977. It was originally released as Gods and Beasts. See also Gerald Suster Hitler and the Age of Horus, Sphere, London, 1981.
97) This symbol is frequently used, e.g., What is Scientology, 2nd edition, 1992, p. 358
98) Suster, Hitler and the Age of Horus, p. 138