Bespectacled, curiously accented faux socialite Anna Delvey, née Sorokin, managed to swindle hotels, banks, investors and many a jetsetter into believing she was an entrepreneurial German heiress on a mission to build a cultural arts mecca.
In reality, she is the Russian-born daughter of a truck driver whose ambitions exceeded her means. Sorokin lived the high life before being convicted of grand larceny and serving time in prison.
Her life and cons inspired the Netflix series “Inventing Anna” as well as an episode of the HBO Max docuseries “Generation Hustle.” What do the stars say about the woman who became the Soho grifter? Read on to find out.
Sun in Aquarius
Born January 23, 1991, Anna Sorokin’s sun is in the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The sun, simply put, is where we shine. It represents our most essential nature and the expression of our ‘yang’ energy. Fixed air sign Aquarius is the domain of geniuses, madmen, charismatic cult leaders and extraterrestrials. Coincidentally, Julia Garner who plays Sorokin in the Netflix series, is also an Aquarius.
Aquarius has two planetary rulers, structured Saturn and wild out Uranus, and its natives often straddle the line between maintaining and dismantling the structures of old. We see this duality manifest in Sorokin, who was born in Moscow the year the USSR collapsed.
In terms of reinforcing and reinventing boundaries, we can think of capitalism and the ruthless pursuit of wealth as Sorokin’s frontier. Add to this the effect of being born of little means into the decadent, self-centric millennial generation and we begin to see how a fraud was formed. Indeed, part of the reason Anna has become a crooked kind of aspirational figure is that she managed, for a time, to live a life many of us are taught to covet but are unable to reach.
Aquarius is the domain of geniuses, madmen, charismatic cult leaders and extraterrestrials.
The visionaries of the zodiac, Aquarian natives are adept at conceiving and delivering upon outlandish schemes and wild dreams, a quality expressed in Sorokin, whose con was predicated on her development of a dynamic visual arts club to be named in her honor. Sorokin envisioned its center as a 45,000-square-foot, multi-use space inside of a historic church and boasted that it would include three restaurants, a juice bar and a German bakery — a nod to her imagined ancestry. Intending to bridge the worlds of art, aristocracy and apple dumplings, Sorokin’s plan was as grand as it was delusional: a hallmark of the Aquarian spirit.
Aquarians, like other air signs, seem aloof because they don’t inhabit or experience emotion in a direct way, preferring instead to intellectualize their feelings and find ways to transmute them into wind power. This dissociative streak helps explain how Sorokin was able to con her many marks and closest friends without any interference from the loathsome feelings of empathy and regret. Indeed, only an air sign, or perhaps a wayward Scorpio, would take being labeled a sociopath as a compliment.
Aquarians are known to curate a public character in order to protect their authentic selves. Sorokin demonstrates this tendency in its more extreme form, changing her name, inventing an origin story and essentially pretending to be someone she wanted to be in order to live a life she couldn’t afford. As Martha Shane, director of “Generation Hustle,” explained, “Anna is really a master of creating a persona.”
Moon is a mystery but smells like the expensive taste of Taurus
The moon in the birth chart reveals our yin energy, our instincts and what we need to feel safe. Because Sorokin’s birth time is unknown and the moon changed signs midday on the day of her birth, our girl has either a fire-breathing, take no prisoners, issue no apologies Aries moon or a luxury-loving, heart is a potato, gifts are my love language Taurus moon.
Being that Anna spent most of her life in New York grifting between expensive hotel rooms, my money says she’s got a bull moon. Contributing to this hypothesis is this quote from Sorokin’s duped friend Rachel DeLoache Williams, “Her routine dinner spot became Le Coucou … she befriended the staff, and even the chef, Daniel Rose, who, upon her request, obligingly made off-the-menu bouillabaisse just for her. Dinners were accompanied by abundant white wine.”
Lazy luxury? The literal embodiment of the Taurus moon.
Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of love, aesthetics and indulgence. Trading in charm and reveling in hedonism, Sorokin’s moon smells of butter and last the drop of Chenin Blanc in the bottle. Williams goes on to describe Sorokin as, “All things in excess: she shopped, ate, and drank. Usually wearing a Supreme brand hoodie, workout pants, and sneakers, she embodied a lazy sort of luxury.” Lazy luxury? The literal embodiment of the Taurus archetype.
Both Aquarius and Taurus are fixed signs, meaning that natives are hard-pressed to change their minds or admit their faults — a fact made evident by Sorokin’s refusal to apologize for her actions.
Mars in Gemini
Mars is the planet of action and aggression, revealing how we go about getting what we want. Sorokin’s Mars is in adaptable, chatty, erratic, not-always-honest Gemini. Gemini is the sign of communication and it’s thus fitting that Sorokin managed to talk her way into large sums of money, inspiring good faith using little more than her mysterious accent, conversational prowess and curated social media presence.
In regard to her ambition, Sorokin’s defense attorney Todd Spodek maintains that “Anna had every intention of doing things the right way, but she couldn’t open those doors without doing something a little bit gray to open the door.” “A little bit gray” being textbook MO of a Gemini Mars.
The Ballad of Sorokin and Saturn
Sorokin has Saturn, planet of restriction, conjunct her North Node in Capricorn. As Allegedly Astrology deftly notes, “You could say that discipline and or lack of is promised in her natal chart and the ultimate discipline is prison.”
Apropos of this, Sorokin’s stint behind bars coincided with her Saturn return, a time in life when the planet of punishment and tough love returns to the place it was at the time of birth. Saturn is a difficult master but its presence in our lives is meant to advance us, through trial and tribulations, towards actualization.
In addition to Saturn and her North Node, our girl has a mess of placements, otherwise known as a stellium, in the shrewd, get-rich-or-die-trying sign of Capricorn. Similar Capricorn influences can be found in the birth chart of Sorokin’s alleged pal, and fellow Aquarius, Julia Fox. The most capitalist of all the earth signs, the ambition of Capricorn is matched only by their exquisite taste and somewhat superior attitude, evident in Sorokin’s court room looks spawning their own Instagram account and her habit of referring to the less moneyed as “peasants.”
Represented by the tenacious goat, Capricorn is built to climb, baby, over the accumulated skulls and siphoned bank accounts of their affluent enemies all the way to the proverbial top. As Sorokin maintains in perhaps the most Capricorn quote of all time, “My motive was never money … I was power hungry.” If power is publicity than Sorokin’s book deal and seminal Netflix series suggest this grifter is well on her way to an unlikely ascent.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.