Some History of Matrix Software by Michael Erlewine
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Some History of Matrix Software By Michael Erlewine Matrix Software Circle Books An interest in astrology and all On the spring equinox in 1968 my things esoteric probably grew out of younger brother Stephen, his wife my Catholic upbringing, a religion Morgen, and his partner John C. which aside from having a lot of Sullivan opened Circle Books, the negatives IMO had the side effect of first metaphysical bookstore in Ann endowing me with a sense of Arbor. It was located at 215 S. State mystery and awe for the universe. Street up on the 2nd floor, just at the Don‟t ask me to explain; that is just top of the stairs. In fact, if you went how it turned out. up those stairs and kept on walking In the late 1950s and early 1960s I you were there. Circle Books was interested not only in astrology, consisted of two medium-sized but also in tarot, the I-Ching, and the rooms and a back room which was world of occult knowledge. But it an office. I was proud of my brother was the year I spent in Berkeley, for bringing to Ann Arbor something California in 1964 that cemented the the town never had and really deal. In Berkeley I was exposed to needed. Prior to Circle Books the Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, and a whole only place to get anything close to lot more, not the least of which was metaphysical books was Bob my first LSD trip which really Marshals and that bookstore was opened my eyes to the subtle already in trouble with publishers energies and the unseen. All of this and closed not long after Circle came to a head when I moved back Books opened. The other to Ann Arbor in 1965. bookstores in this university town were all about text books for college courses and offered little else. Circle Books was in a building (perhaps the only one in Ann Arbor) devoted to Sixties themes. On the floor above the bookstore (the third floor) was Middle Earth, a glorified and gone-to-heaven head shop. On the same floor as the bookstore was Saturn, a sixties-style mod clothing store. In the basement was “Little Things,” filled with all kinds of neat little things, and on the main floor was a chic expensive clothing store. The whole building was probably a trip for some visitors back in the Photo of Poster by Michael Erlewine middle 1960s. one for salt water. And finally we had a four-foot chart wheel (also backlit) that displayed the current astrology of the day. It was beautiful. John Sullivan and Stephen & Morgen ran the bookstore. I ended up calculating the astrology charts for the bookstore, at first by hand using the traditional log table approach and later in the early 1970s using a little 4-functon calculator. I probably helped out Photo Michael Erlewine circa 1968 with sales at times and I know I occasionally gave classes in the In the beginning Circle Books larger second room some evenings. looked pretty empty, some simple Mostly I just hung out there a lot. pre-made bookshelves placed Circle Books was the perfect place against the wall and not-quite- to spend time, meet new people, enough-yet books. I am not sure and have lengthy intellectual how I got involved, but I did. After conversations on astrology and the all, I was Stephen‟s older brother. occult and all things spiritual. People That would do it or was it my came from towns near and far to growing interest in astrology and all shop at Circle Books. Until then things metaphysical. Stephen was most of us had no place and no one already an astrologer and I was, to talk with about these spiritual well I was many things. At the time I matters. The bookstore was a believe I encouraged or enthused conversation waiting to happen. John Sullivan to invest more money in the store to modify it. Circle Books was almost like a dream come true - otherworldly at Within weeks of opening I was hard times. There were plenty of outside at work helping them to remodel the windows and the inner store with its store so that it had a more new-age globe lights and backlit panels made and sophisticated look. I ended up the overall effect something very designing and supervising the re- special. You just naturally wanted to building of the entire store in go there. How many times did I redwood and glass. Back then come up those stairs two steps at a redwood was just another (beautiful time and then step down into Circle of course) wood at the lumber yard Books for a wonderful time – many, and in fact it was cheaper than clear many, many. pine. Imagine that! When we were done, the entire bookstore was You could probably say that I held finished in redwood with frosted court there. And I wasn‟t the only globe lights and back-lit frosted one. It just naturally happened. glass panels at the top of some Before long I had not only some shelves, and with boxed-in areas students but many new friends. Ann down by the floor. Better yet, we Arbor had never before catered to had two really great aquariums, one those with an interest in spiritual and for fresh water fish and a really big metaphysical things. And they new-age and astrology titles, it flocked to the store. meant less and less sales for Circle Books. In 1969 my brother Stephen and I published the “Circle Books When sales flagged further the store Astrological Calendar” which has was eventually sold in 1974 to been published every year since Robert Thibodeau from the Detroit then. It is still going today, over area who had his own metaphysical forty-one years later. That is quite a store in Ferndale called “Mayflower run. I left Ann Arbor to run Books.” Thibodeau cherry-picked greenhouses in northern Michigan the books he wanted for his store and later 19,000 square feet of and sold Circle Books to another glass in Apopka Florida in later would-be bookseller not long 1971. That did not work out. When I afterward. It soon faltered and failed returned to Ann Arbor after my as well. Like all mandalas, it adventures in the green-plant bloomed and then it was gone. business early in 1972 I was able to By this time I had been a pick up the chart work for the professional astrologer already bookstore again and began offering operating out of my home at 1041 many different evening classes. N. Main Street for a couple of years. Making a living as an astrologer is no easy task. I was working all the time, doing readings, giving classes, writing courses, and making flyers which I would post all over town. By 1975 I was also operating my own mail-order astrological book business out of my home. This really was a shoestring operation. And our house was small. Poster by Michael Erlewine We also started a local astrological group called “An Ann Arbor Astrological Association” and I designed a special logo and poster for it. The meetings were held Current photo of 114 N. Main. I did weekly in the evening at the store. the paint job which has remained for Circle Books survived for something over 30 years like six years but as all the other bookstores in Ann Arbor begin to pick up what are called the “bread & butter” books, the most popular The House at 1041 N. Main Street us. It was difficult to climb even if We lived in a little house perched you wanted to. The house faced high on an embankment out on east so we could watch the sun 1041 North Main Street in Ann come up on the river early summer Arbor. It overlooked the Huron River mornings. It was one of those which runs parallel to the street but places few people would want to on the other side of the highway, live, but we loved it. It was almost beyond the junkyard and the train outside of Ann Arbor (not smack in tracks. Our house was out on the it) and kind of isolated, yet still near edge of town right where the where things were happening. It highway begins so we could have was a good compromise. heavy traffic at times and often The house itself was nothing special plenty of noise. It was also no kind but it was special for us because it of road for a kid to be near. It was was where we lived and the rent the “Main Street.” And we were was low enough that we could afford directly across the street from to stay there as long as I could find Lansky‟s junk yard with all that some work. We had next to nothing entailed and giant wharf rats would and few ways to make a living. I cross the street and could be seen picked up odd jobs as a stagehand digging through the garbage cans at or mixed clay and helped to fire the side of our house in the dusk pottery at a friend‟s studio. I had lost and early morning light. These rats most of the income streams I had were the size of small cats. Also, built up before I left Ann Arbor to go less than one-half block from our into the green-plant business. When house freight trains ran both east & that did not work out and I found my west and north & south all night way back to my home town, things long.