Is it true that French film actor Gérard Depardieu is moving from France to Russia to avoid a 75 percent tax rate?

Ce que vous pensez, Gérard Depardieu?

Or, in English, WTF?

Very ironically I’m currently reading a biography of Ivan the Terrible (1530 – 1584), who was truly terrible in a way almost inconceivable. Not only did Ivan the Terrible torture and kill his enemies, he killed his trusted advisors, war heroes and his own son in a fit of rage.

Yeah, yeah, this is common in royalty you say (as my brother did). But in politics, royal or secular, there is usually a reason for killing. Not with Ivan – he killed simply to watch person after person experience the pain and humiliation of a tortuous death.

Right now I fear Novgorod, the metropolis of one of Ivan’s massacres, the way a local community fears the “haunted house” where a man murdered his wife.

While discussing Ivan the Terrible with my brother, he made an interesting point about how the trends of the past can be seen in current politics. “History repeats itself” is something we hear that supports this idea but why is this so? Have we not truly progressed as humans? Are we 16th century creatures with iPhones?

Why Russia?

As you may have sensed, I’m a little afraid for Depardieu. When I think of fleeing to Russia, I think of spymasters, such as Kim Philby, the Cold War British Intelligence officer who was a double agent before fleeing to Russia (then the USSR) where he resided until his death.

What makes a man go to Russia as a double agent or to avoid taxes?

While Philby needed to go to the USSR due to his double-agent hood, Depardieu could have gone to a number of other countries across the globe. He could have made the same statement by moving to the United States (Ohio maybe?) or Brazil or Uruguay or Angola or Nepal or Vanuatu.

Why Russia?

Is it possible that Depardieu is avoiding more than taxes? Why does he need to make such a grand statement in choosing Russia? Aren’t there dozens of silent methods for avoiding taxes?

Gérard Depardieu

Depardieu, according to this Astrotheme chart, is a Capricorn sun and Scorpio moon. Depardieu additionally has Jupiter, Mercury and Mars in Capricorn. As you are aware, Pluto is currently transiting Capricorn and is currently conjunct Depardieu’s sun and Jupiter.

Capricorn and Scorpio certainly keep both money and emotions close to the chest, regardless of tax rate.

Saturn in Virgo also adds earth to the chart and may indicate penny pinching but normally has a deep insecurity about not being perfect which manifests as anxiety and health problems.

There’s a nifty Neptune in Libra square to Capricorn which creates some delusions that one is being diplomatic when really one is being selfish and self-centered (I bought the power drill for you, sweetheart).

Venus in Sagittarius suggests Depardieu’s love of things (especially women) foreign, but the preponderance of earth signs tells me that Depardieu will feel more than a little homesick. Capricorn, being an earth sign, loves its habits.

Depardieu would do best living near mountains (earth) and water (Scorpio). But from the stories, I’m not sure he will truly live in Russia, just pay his taxes there.

My first sense of his motivation in ostentatiously leaving his country is that he’s demanding a respect he doesn’t feel he’s getting. Capricorn is definitely about respect and control and Depardieu’s “tax” problem is really a problem about feeling out of control – he’s going to be the “boss” of his taxes, not you.

The Pluto transit is the power-struggle exploded. I’m guessing Depardieu is fighting with other authority figures, males and institutions besides France.

Depardieu might want to understand that if what he’s truly doing is fighting external authority, he’s gone to the right place to CONTINUE that struggle. When Pluto finishes its transit of Depardieu’s Capricorn planets, he may have a new idea about money and wealth. The worst will come in about 7-8 years when Pluto transits Depardieu’s natal Mars.

In other words, the fights we have with others are often the fights we have with ourselves. Depardieu might be fighting “taxes” but may have brought on a bigger fight about “who’s in charge here.”

Depardieu might do well to in his studies of Russian history to understand the political machinations that a man like Vladimir Putin has survived versus his own problems with taxes.

Kim Philby

Philby’s Astrotheme chart shows sun in Capricorn with Saturn, moon and Mars in Taurus. Taurus is opposite Scorpio, where Depardieu’s moon resides. Philby’s sun, according to this chart, is in the 8th house, which is ruled by Scorpio.

Again we have issues of control and respect which probably is the motivation that led Philby to double agency in the first place. He could have simply been an anonymous man in the roster of British intelligence but now he is infamous.

Philby’s three planets in Taurus also suggest he simply liked physical wealth. Saturn in Taurus has the feeling of material insecurity – there is never enough. Whether or not there is true material poverty, there is a spirit of poverty with this placement.

With his Neptune in Cancer opposite Uranus in Capricorn and Saturn/moon in the same sign of Taurus, I get the sense that Philby was not nostalgic about early home life. His early home environment seems to have left him feeling he didn’t have enough which is possibly why he could leave that environment for good.

He simply didn’t like England and could have wealth and prestige in Russia.

I’ll have to add Philby’s autobiography to my reading list to understand a little better his motivations.

Is Brigette Bardot Next?

French colleague Brigette Bardot has threatened to follow Depardieu to Russia, for reasons of animal cruelty rather than taxes.

Brigette, I believe, is just blowing smoke. The woman has a lot of air in her chart (sun in Libra, moon in Gemini according to Astrotheme) and is simply coming to the dinner table and jumping into the conversation without really knowing that the table is talking about “Youth in Asia,” not “euthanasia.”

Libra sun Brigette will really dig Libra Putin, if she does pick up her pets and flee to Moscow. Capricorn sun Depardieu will find, if he really gets to know Putin, that Libra squares Capricorn.

Good luck to Gérard and Brigette .

Or as they say it in Russian – Удачи.