Keith Urban yesterday checked himself into rehab, canceling his appearance at the ARIA awards concert and much of his upcoming tour. Urban has a well-documented history of battling addictions, and if tabloid reports can be believed his marriage to Nicole Kidman has been under stress since tying the knot back in June. The National Enquirer reports that the pair are desperately trying to become pregnant and have sought fertility treatment. Other gossip rags reported last summer that Nicole became furious that Keith was still friends with his ex Niki Taylor. Rumors are rampant that Keith never really got over the relationship with Niki, and the timing of the rehab relapse just ten days after Niki Taylor announced her engagement are an interesting coincidence.

Keith is a Scorpio and his Mercury and Neptune are also in Scorpio. Scorpios are passionate about everything they do, and because Scorpio is a fixed sign their natures tend to be more entrenched and unflexible. Keith has Mars in Capricorn, the sign of material success. He is driven (Mars) to achieve (Capricorn), and his Mars is both trined by Jupiter, expanding his sense of possibility, and squared by Saturn, causing frustration as Saturn puts the brakes on that drive.

To make things more complicated for him, Saturn in his chart is retrograde (appearing to move backwards) and the negative voice of Saturn is turned inwards in self-critical thinking. Because so much of a man’s self-image is tied up in his work, this that Keith puts on himself to achieve success is going to color any relationship that he is in. Keith had a spell of alcohol and cocaine addiction while he was climbing his way to the top–apparently his own intensity was too much for him.

Chiron opposes Uranus in Keith’s chart, an aspect that occurred over 50 times between the early 1950’s and the late 1980s. The individuals with this aspect often have difficulty with the enormous energy that is created by the polarization of these two planets. On an energetic healing level, Chiron is associated with kundalini energy – the life-sustaining force in the body. Uranus is energetically associated with the electromagnetic force field that surrounds the body (the “aura”). Individuals both with Chiron in aspect to Uranus, particularly the opposition, have a direct line into the healing force (found in many modalities of energy healing) once they have been able to balance those opposing force within their own bodies. Until then this dynamic can cause tremendous unease for which the individual may seek to numb themselves in various drugs or alcohol. For someone like Keith Urban whose focus may be more on his outer life than the inner world, alcohol and drugs may be the one thing that helps him to keep working.

Earlier this year in a profile of the relationship between Keith and Nicole I wrote that these two are very different in their natures and while that is exciting during the initial phases of a relationship, it is hard for two such different people to maintain closeness over the long term of a settled, living together marriage and partnership. This is a relationship that can last in a long-distance situation but marriage will be very difficult.

Keith Urban is experiencing some difficult planetary cycles right now that are exacerbating the inner struggles that he deals with on a day-to-day basis. Earlier this year I wrote that Keith was undergoing a difficult transit of Pluto (transformation) to Chiron (wounding and healing) that could bring great healing along with great pain, since Chiron heals through the exposure of our deepest wounds. I then predicted that if Keith was able to walk through the fire of his painful history this could be a time of healing and growth for him, but that if he did not face the challenge he would run to escape the pressure.

Since then Keith has been affected by the beginning of another difficult cycle of Saturn (restriction and disappointment) to Neptune in his chart (creativity and spiritual connection). This can be a demoralizing time where we find that our illusions and dreams (Neptune) are shattered by the hard cold reality of Saturn. The difficulty in Keith’s relationship with Nicole Kidman is that her chart and psychological makeup is much lighter and easier than Keith’s, and she may not really understand the dark places of Keith’s psyche. This is a time when he is being called upon to face the underworld of his fears and darkness, and this is a difficult thing to do in the limelight of celebrity.