Maxine taylor A S T R O LO G E R
BY BRIAN HOUCK
Maxine Taylor is a pioneer in astrology. She was integral in getting astrology legalized in Atlanta, Georgia. She was the first person in the country to be a licensed astrologer. She graduated from the University of Florida in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in education. After getting her degree she moved home to Miami, Florida to teach at Miami Senior High School for two years before moving to Atlanta. That is when her life totally changed. She found herself on a houseboat in the middle of Lake Lanier with a group of people, most of whom she’d never met. A lady much older than Maxine started talking to her about astrology and told her everything that was going on in her life, based solely on her sun sign. A sun sign is the position of the sun during the time of one’s birth which then distinguishes you as either Leo, Virgo, Cancer etc. “It blew me away” Maxine recalled, “It sounded like she knew me.” Maxine was a self-proclaimed skeptic, bringing in previous prejudices, but when the woman started talking, Maxine’s mindset totally shifted. Later in the week, she was at the supermarket and picked up a book on astrology that had a forecast for the upcoming year, depending on your sun sign. At this point, she was jobless after leaving her job at Miami High and was living “hand-to-mouth.” In that book, it stated that for her sign, all of her financial problems would be solved by the 18th of August. Sure enough when the 18th came around she received her 800 dollar retirement check from Dade County Florida. Maxine recalled, “It took me maybe two minutes to call information and get the phone number of the American Federation of Astrologers.” She was fascinated and determined to find out more. She began researching astrology, and as she was studying, it came to her out of the blue that she was to be the one to legalize astrology. This would not be an easy task or one for the faint of heart because astrology, as it still is in many places, was considered on-par with fortune-telling and there was strong opposition to its practice. Everyone told her she would never accomplish that in the middle of the Bible belt and her response was, “Oh yeah? Watch me.”
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