The royal rituals tended to be directed toward three basic goals: I) to give God that which he wills, wishes, loves and that by which he lives; 2) to reciprocate the good, especially life, that is given; and 3) through these and the ethical practice that undergirds them, establish and reaffirm legitimacy of rule. As noted above, it is in the Coffin Texts in the Middle Kingdom that Maat is linked to life. It is in the conversation of Nun and the Creator in his name of Atum. In this dialog, Nun says to the Creator that he should kiss and nourish himself with Maat and “put her to your nose that your heart may live”. This concept of breathing Maat or of Maat being the breath of life is reaffirmed in Khunanpu’s classic statement that “doing Maat is breath to the nose”.

Ma’at, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt by Karenga
(via into-strange-skies)