Meet Maxine
A visionary with her eyes on the stars.
Maxine is an internationally known astrologer, energy healer, spiritual coach, teacher, speaker and published author. One of Maxine’s greatest gifts is the ability to awaken people to the truth of who they are and empower them to transform their lives. Her mission in life is sharing her spiritual truth and wisdom with others to assist them in leading more successful, fulfilling lives.
Maxine was born in Brooklyn, where she spent her childhood. When she was fifteen, she moved with her family to Miami Beach and completed her high school education at Miami Beach Senior High. As a result of being part of an advanced educational program in New York, she was able to fast track her education and graduate from high school a year early.
She continued her education at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she joined the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority. Maxine participated in several of the university’s beauty pageants and was a finalist in the 1962 Miss University of Florida contest. After obtaining a Bachelor of Education degree in 1964, Maxine moved back to Miami Beach and taught for two years at Miami Senior High School.
A Fateful Encounter
The stars align.
In 1966, Maxine moved to Atlanta, where she had a “chance” meeting with a student of astrology. The student told Maxine all about herself (Maxine) based solely on her astrological sign. This intrigued Maxine and prompted her to learn more. Unknowingly, astrology became the introduction to what would become her life’s work.
Shortly thereafter, Maxine joined a group led by an Episcopal priest that met weekly to explore spiritual and psychic areas. The members of this group became the founders of the Atlanta Institute of Metaphysics, where she would later teach astrology for several years.
In 1969, Maxine decided to pursue astrology as a career, but it was considered fortune telling in Georgia. “Since astrology is not fortune telling,” she notes, “I wanted to distinguish it legally and give it dignity. So I met with the Cobb County Commissioners, who granted me the first license to practice astrology in the State of Georgia.” As a result of her pursuit to legalize astrology, Maxine became America’s first licensed astrologer.
Tired County Commissioners Finally 'See Stars'
November 12, 1969
The Marietta Daily Journal
By Sarah Jones Elder
Journal Staff Writer
It had been a long Tuesday afternoon, full of sewer-angry and water-angry and highway-angry people and the clock on the wall showed nearly 5 p.m. when the girl walked into the Cobb County Commission meeting.
Everybody looked, because she was the kind of girl people look at–pretty, with a young air about her straight, short black hair and gray dress, and an absolutely self-confident thrust to her chin.
“Sit down, young lady.” Commission Chairman Ernest Barrett told her. “We’ll get to you in a few minutes.”
The Atlanta doctor, who had been talking about the Metropolitan Atlanta Council for Health, continued for awhile until the commission politely told him to go away, they’d make a decision later.
“Come on up here,” Barrett told the girl. “And you get up here too, Mr. White (Cliff White, Cobb license bureau director). I can’t even pronounce the word.”
“It’s astrology, Mr. Barrett,” White told him cheerfully. “This is the girl who wants a license to practice astrology in Cobb,” he explained to the commissioners.
“She requested a personal hearing.” Barrett said.
“There seems to be some question,” the girl, whose name was Maxine Taylor, began breathlessly, referring to conversation among commissioners when they turned down her application last month, “of how much bearing this has on fortune telling. Astrology is the study of how the planets affect human beings.”
“A lot of people who are not all that honest have made predictions and put astrology in a bad light. I think anybody asking for a license to practice astrology should be able to demonstrate his ability, and I’m prepared to do that.”
Commissioners Harry Ingram and Thomas Brown immediately volunteered as test subjects.
Barrett vehemently declined, “No! She’s liable to tell me I’m going to have another day like today.”
She is nothing like a fortune teller, Miss Taylor explained. “I’m a teacher — I’ve taught for six years. I do this as a hobby and I don’t charge anything.
Continuing in a rush, she said, “It takes 10 hours to work up a chart, then I have to spend about two hours explaining it.
“If I could be given a business license, I would open up an office. I mean, like this is a business, and I don’t want to do it in my home. I haven’t been charging, but people keep volunteering to pay me.”
“Let’s get this straight,” Commissioner T.L. Dickson said, “Do you or charge or don’t you?”
“Well, yes, I would, if I had a license,” she replied. “This is like a psychiatric study, it goes into every detail of your life.”
Somebody asked, “Can you pay to have somebody else’s done for you?”
“Can you tell me what day of the week to kill hogs?” Commissioner Dickson asked.
“No,” she said, “This just determines trends.”
“I had some bacon the other morning that started out that long,” Dickson said, measuring with hands far apart, “and ended up looking like that (hands four inches apart). My wife said that was because I killed the hog on the wrong day.”
“I move we create a license for astrology,” Ingram said.
“Will you be my first customer?” Miss Taylor asked.
“Yes,” Ingram said. “And I move that we give her a privilege license for $10.”
White interrupted, “I recommend that we make it not less than $100.”
“What are you basing that on?” one of the commissioners asked.
“On the basis of what she’s going to charge, percentage wise,” he said.
“What are you going to charge?” another commissioner inquired.
“Well,” she said, “about $25. After all, it takes about 12 hours to complete a reading.”
“That’s pretty cheap,” Brown said, and Commissioner E.P. Ellison agreed.
“If I get a license,” Miss Taylor said, “you’ve all been so nice to me, I’ll do all yours for free.”
“Note that she made that offer after the motion had been made,” assistant county attorney Grant Brantley said.
“I move we don’t charge her for the balance of the year,” Dickson said.
White and the commissioners discussed for a few minutes whether she should be charged anything for the rest of 1969 and what the 1970 fee should be.
“If she keeps on, they’re going to wind up just giving her the license,” somebody said out loud.
Finally, Ingram moved that the license be issued for the rest of 1969 at $10 and the 1970 fee be taken under advisement. The vote was unanimous.
Barrett cautioned her that she is being issued a privilege license which could be withdrawn at the commission’s discretion.
She said she understood and rose to leave.
“Young lady, you did very well,” Barrett told her.
Subsequently, Maxine had a bill introduced into the Georgia General Assembly to legalize astrology in the City of Atlanta. In 1970, the bill was passed and signed into law by then-Governor Lester Maddox. This historic event made Atlanta the first city in the country to license the practice of astrology.
Maxine continued to make history by spearheading the establishment of the Atlanta Board of Astrology Examiners and, in 1977, opened the first astrology office in the upscale Buckhead business community of Atlanta. She was one of the founders of the Atlanta Astrological Society and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Federation of Astrologers.
Maxine In The Media
A star is born.
After CNN’s inaugural debut in 1980, Maxine appeared regularly for the first two years as the cable news network’s only on-air astrologer. During this time, she interviewed with the famous Larry King on The Larry King Show and was featured as a guest at various times on all the major networks.
Maxine brought astrology not only into the mainstream but into the limelight. She published several books, produced workshops for large, national retail chains and appeared in all forms of media. Not only was she pretty, popular, funny and direct, but her predictions were amazingly accurate. One of these predictions detailed a successful comeback for Chrysler and was published in The Wall Street Journal in January of 1981.
Published in The Wall Street Journal on January 29, 1981
ATLANTA – You’re gonna make it, Chrysler Corp. But not because of your cars. It’s your stars. So says professional astrologer Maxine Taylor, who is paid, but not by Chrysler, which has trouble enough paying the regular help, to tell the future of careers, securities speculations and business ventures.
Tweedy Miss Taylor casts Chrysler’s horoscope for free, cautioning that “transiting Uranus opposes natal Mercury” in Chrysler’s 12th house of “behind the scenes activities,” clearly foretelling internal reorganization between now and April. But by July 31, Chrysler’s balance sheet will start to shape up.
Because of Maxine’s international recognition, the nation of Hungary contacted her shortly after the fall of its communist regime in 1989 and asked her to do a forecast for the country. This extraordinary reading was broadcast live over Hungary’s only radio station in Budapest and then published in the country’s leading newspaper. This unique achievement was one of the proudest moments in her astrology career.
With the evolution of technology in the years following the Hungary forecast, Maxine’s sphere of influence grew to eventually include the internet. Her first website launched in 1999 and continued to blossom into the site it is today. She has had several web series on various internet broadcasting networks, appeared as a regular guest on podcasts, been featured in numerous online articles and established a YouTube channel in 2013.