Common traits, common symbols and myths, show up in cultures.  They suggest common origins.  Common meanings.  Possibly some linked, ancient event lost to the mists of time.  But in most of the cultures of Creation, there is a common imagery;
A man, a mountain, and the rock he must push up it.
Telion first read the story in an old book his mother found in some ruins to the East of Gethamane.  It was Shogunate Era, and it was the story of a mortal who sought to elude death.  He let death chase him- through Wyld zones and Underworld, trapped it within vase, claiming to have taken Death from Creation itself.  Then the Shogun was called, and he released Death back into Creation.  The mortal was punished- chained to the rock which he would push up the mountain, until he finally humbled himself before the Shogun and Death and was released.
The reason varies from culture to culture.  Cloud Hands says the man is a mortal who reached far past his station and was punished for it until he learned humility.  In Whitewall, he was a man who attempted to usurp the Sun, and he prayed to the Sun for the strength to complete the task.  In Gethamane, he was a man so loud he drowned out the drums, and sacrificed himself to let the rock crush him and seal off the tunnels Vodak would lurk in.  It can be for many reasons, many crimes.  But it is always the same- they have done something wrong and they must do right.
It is a man, a mountain, and the rock he must push up it.
Every time he nears the summit, the rock falls down and he must begin again.  Be he a demon blooded, god blooded, mortal, dragon blooded, god or celestial exalted, he never succeeds.  Not until he learns his lesson or somehow finds a way out of his punishment.
The man pushes the rock up the mountain and he never reaches the summit until the lesson is learned.  Until enlightenment is reached.
Telion would dream of being the man.
Not for a crime- save for those early days where he partially believed in the Dogma- but for the insurmountable tasks before him.
He would choose impossible tasks, and they would be the rock, and accomplishing them would be the mountain.  His reasons, his motivations, are always a steeper and steeper slope.
When he sought to make his school known to every corner of Creation, he was pushing the rock up the mountain.
As he seeks to change the face of the Solar Exalted in the eyes of Creation, he pushes the rock up the mountain.
And this task- the Seal- is the steepest still.
But now his dreams take a different turn.  For there is realization.
And in the dreams, he cuts his feet.  The mountain becomes silt and soil and vineyards, giving him the traction to reach the summit.
Or he calls upon green fire, melting the mountain and placing the rock atop the crater that was the summit.
Or he shuffles the rock into Elsewhere with the Equation, walks to the summit, and places the rock upon it.
Or he simply lets the rock and the mountain know what he is.  And he picks up the rock in the palm of his hand, and places it upon the summit.  For he is an Adamant Circle Sorcerer.  The tools and works of the Primordials are his to command.  He is Exalted.  He is Chosen of the Sun.  He is Adamant Circle, and few things are truly impossible for him.
He awakens from the dream in their bedroom- one of the many they have, this one in Vedame City.  It is the night after one of the many festivals- this one in honor of the anniversary of one of Kanosak's campaigns.  Next to him, Lyria sleeps, smile on her face, content with the world.  Softly kissing her on the forehead, he slips out of bed, walking across the bedroom and to the drawing desk he never realized was there before, and he pulls out a sheet of paper and a quill.
He needs no chalk, no graphite.  Because he understands.
This is his rock and his mountain and he has reached the summit.
He starts with a ring.  Because he understands.  This is a sorcerous work.
And he will start with a summoning circle and a Sanctum Terminus.