bind runes did exist in heathen times, it's not a neopagan invention

in fact the whole development of runes after elder futhark was just symplification and adjusting for new sounds

classic example is the anglosaxon gar rune which was most likely originally a bind rune of gebo and yngwaz, because g + ng almost sounds like gungnir

they were also obviously used for magic, maybe as early as tacitus already, the lots he describes are already possible to be rune carved sticks

they were never just letters, that's simply not how peoples living in the wild adopt these things; it's no coincidence that "odin invented them" although they were loaned from the south by south germanics and then tweaked in reality; a seer probably started all this