This image is ripe with Masonic significance. The image is evocative of a number of images of the Three Ancient Operative Grand Masters, KS, HKT, & HA: e.g.,
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![Image](http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/images/Solomon_HiramAbiff_HiramKingofTyre.jpg)
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The posture of the workman should be familiar to all who have been Accepted as Fellows among Freemasons. Waite himself intimates the significance of this card; The Apprentice of the 8 of Pentacles has been promoted to Journeyman, and now presents his Master Piece for Inspection.
The fact that the Master Piece is the Keystone of an arch, bearing the Masonic "tripod" (3 dots arranged in a triangle) with a Cross within a Rose at the center, shows that this is the conclusion of a particular endeavor, not it's beginning.... Even so, the Keystone and the Rose Croix are intimations of the the grades beyond that of "Master", so the Master Piece is just itself proof that the workman is ready for further achievements, both material ans spiritual. He has now earned the right, by proof of his skill AS a Master of the Craft, to embark on new and higher paths. It is for this reason that Waite mentions that, despite the obvious meanings of becoming the master of a trade, engaging in skilled labor, the divinatory meanings of the 3 of Pentacles are "usually, however, regarded as a card of nobility, aristocracy, renown, [and] glory."