White and black magic
A popular split between helpful and harmful magic, one that scholars treat with caution because it depends on who is judging.
Also: good and evil magic, light and dark magic
In popular speech white magic heals, protects and blesses while black magic harms. Historians point out that the labels have worked as accusations. In early modern Europe, authorities condemned cunning folk who healed, because any magic could be read as a pact with the Devil. A rite one group sees as protection, another may see as an attack. Anthropologists find that many societies hold the line differently, drawing it by motive, by the person doing it, or by who suffers. The colour terms are also tangled with racial language, and some practitioners now avoid them. Many traditions simply speak of work done in the open versus work done in secret.