<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> should be "an esoteric path", twice, nonetheless </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Arrogance?
The choice of article is actually based upon the phonetic (sound) quality of the first letter in a word, not on the orthographic (written) representation of the letter. If the first letter makes a vowel-type sound, you use "an"; if the first letter would makes a consonant-type sound, you use "a."
So "Esoteric" is sounded as "es" or "s" so "a" can be used. s-e-teric is the sound spelling or "consonant-type sound.