The historic Star Chamber was a court in Tudor England. For much of its existence, it was efficient and useful. The connotations of the term Star Chamber that reach us today stem from the arbitrary exercise of power in the court before it was eliminated in 1641.
In a more generic sense, a Star Chamber is anything characterized by secrecy and irresponsible arbitrariness. What goes on in a Star Chamber? What does one look like?
The term is an appealing one, because it mixes law with mystery, clarity with chaos, the evident with the arcane. One cannot question the pronouncements of a Star Chamber. They either apply to you or they do not.
Moving away from the strictly historical interpretation, we have the terms star and chamber. These serve as the bases for the StarChamber glyph [*], which is in turn inspired by the Egyptian hieroglyphics for chamber or hall, and star. Is the chamber a floor plan or an elevation? Is it a star symbol or a man? As above, so below.
In a more expansive sense, a star chamber is an entire universe. The Egyptian goddess Nut was the sky mother. Her body formed the arc of the heavens, and the stars clung to her body. She was the very Star Chamber, identical with the sky and all its contents.